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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

Class 

Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/fromschoolthrougOOwrigrich 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 


C       t         C         f 


f  c        r 


c     r    c  ^'   c    V  «^    c 


From  School 
Through  College 

By 
HENRY   PARKS   WRIGHT 


Doctrina  $ed  vim  promovet  iruitam, 
rectique  ctUtiu  pectora  roborant. 
—Horace. 


New  Havek:   Yale  Univehsitt  Press 

London:    Henry  Frowde 

Oxford  University  Press 

MCMXI 


^':^^ 


COPTRIGHT,   1911, 
BY 

Yalk  University  Press 


First  printed  September,  1911,  1000  copies 
Reprinted  November,  1911,  1000  copies 


•••..•    • 


•  V  •     •  • 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

ALFRED   PARKS  WRIGHT 

1880-1901 


227643 


CONTENTS 


VAOK 

Preface       . 

. 

ix 

I. 

Opportunities 

. 

S 

II. 

The  Main  Purpose 

. 

S9 

III. 

Health,  Recreation,  and  Exercise 

55 

IV. 

Self-Discipline     . 

. 

.     78 

V. 

Courage  and  Honor     . 

. 

95 

VI. 

Among  Classmates 

. 

115 

VII. 

Planning  for  the  Future 

. 

.   187 

PREFACE 

The  thought  of  writing  a  small  book  for 
college  students  first  came  to  me  when  I  was 
invited  to  address  the  graduating  class  of  the 
Hotchkiss  School.  It  was  evident  that  there 
was  no  more  important  subject  for  young  men 
just  passing  from  school  to  college  than  the 
right  use  of  the  years  of  study  immediately 
before  them,  and  the  address  took  the  form  of 
suggestions  such  as  would  have  helped  me  at 
the  beginning  of  my  Freshman  year.  That 
address  was  the  basis  of  the  present  volume. 

The  college  offers  such  large  opportunities 
in  the  way  of  a  preparation  for  life  that  it  is 
a  pity  that  any  one  who  can  have  them  should 
miss  them,  or  that  those  who  have  them  should 
fail  to  get  their  fuU  benefit.  I  have  spent  all 
my  active  life  in  work  with  students,  and  during 
twenty-five  years  in  the  Dean's  Office  of  Yale 
College  a  very  pleasant  part  of  my  service  was 
to  give  friendly  counsel  to  hundreds  of  young 
men  who  came  to  me  with  their  difficulties, 
ambitions,  sorrows,  and  temptations.  The 
suggestions  in  this  book  have  therefore  grown 
out  of  personal  observation  of  student  life,  and 
they  have  this  to  commend  them, — that  they 


PREFACE 

have  been  tested,  and  in  some  cases  at  least  have 
been  found  helpful. 

My  plan  of  life  for  a  college  student  is :  Enter 
well  prepared  so  that  there  will  be  time  for 
something  more  than  class-room  duties.  Make 
study  the  chief,  but  not  the  only  purpose. 
Take  care  of  the  health,  and  do  the  college 
work  so  as  to  go  out  with  sound  mental  train- 
ing and  strong  character.  Get  what  you  can 
of  the  incidental  advantages  and  of  the  enjoy- 
ment which  college  offers,  but  never  to  the 
neglect  of  the  college  studies. 

New  Haven,  Conn. 
July  7,  1911. 


[»] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 


I 

OPPORTUNITIES 


r 


/ 


The  noblest  sight  this  world  affords  is  a  young  man 
bent  upon  making  the  most  of  himself. — T.  T.  Hunger. 

Nothing  great  was  ever  achieved  without  enthusiasm. 

— Emerson. 

A  life  without  a  prevailing  enthusiasm  is  sure  not  to 
rise  to  its  highest  level. — President  Eliot. 

Education  is  the  only  interest  worthy  the  deep,  con- 
trolling anxiety  of  the  thoughtful  man. 

—Wendell  Phillips. 

The  love  of  study,  a  passion  which  derives  fresh  vigor 
from  enjoyment,  supplies  each  day,  each  hour,  with  a 
perpetual  source  of  independent  and  rational  pleasure. 

— Oibbon. 

To  talk  in  public,  to  think  in  solitude,  to  read  and  to 
hear,  to  inquire  and  answer  inquiries,  is  the  business  of 
a  scholar. — Samuel  Johnson. 

The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 
Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight. 

But  they,  while  their  companions  slept. 
Were  toiling  upward  in  the  night. 

— Longfellow. 


I 

OPPORTUNITIES 

There  is  no  time  in  a  student's  life  when  he  is 
more  likely  to  need  good  counsel  than  on  the 
day  when  he  enters  college.  He  has  left  the 
restraints  of  home  and  of  the  school  behind, 
and  is  at  the  beginning  of  what  may  be  made 
the  best  and  happiest  four  years  that  he  will 
ever  know.  He  is  at  that  age  when  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  live,  when  the  future  is  bright,  and 
most  experiences  are  new.  He  feels  conscious 
of  strength  and  quite  sure  of  being  able  to 
accomplish  anything  which  he  sets  out  to  do. 
Impatient  of  suggestion  from  those  who  have 
gone  before  him,  he  is  too  ready  to  take  advice 
from  companions  with  as  little  experience  as 
himself.  How  much  these  four  years  might  do 
for  him  if  he  could  get  at  the  beginning  of 
Freshman  year  the  view  of  the  proper  relation 
of  things  which  most  men  have  when  they 
graduate ! 

I  was  older,  when  admitted  to  college,  than 
the  average  of  my  class  at  graduation,  and 
should  have  been  guilty  of  unpardonable  folly, 
therefore,  if  I  had  not  kept  pretty  constantly 
in  mind  the  purpose  for  which  I  came;  but, 

r8j 


''•'FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

though  necessity  compelled  me  to  work  my  way 
in  part,  I  knew  all  my  classmates  well,  formed 
many  life-long  friendships,  and  had  time  for 
religious  work,  for  social  activities,  and  for 
recreation.  Since  then,  I  have  spent  forty 
years  in  somewhat  intimate  relations  with  the 
undergraduates  of  a  large  college,  and  have 
observed  those  among  them  who  have  won 
success  and  those  who  have  met  failure,  as  well 
as  those  who  have  gained  something  from 
college,  but  ought  to  have  gained  more.  My 
sympathies  are  with  the  student  in  all  that 
rightly  interests  him,  outside  the  class-room 
or  within  it.  I  do  not  wish  to  see  him  enjoy 
college  life  less,  but  I  have  an  earnest  desire 
to  help  him  make  a  wise  use  of  opportunities 
such  as  will  never  come  to  him  again. 

The  majority  of  students  in  the  high  schools 
do  not  continue  their  studies  beyond  what  they 
think  necessary  for  business.  Whether  one 
should  go  on  and  prepare  for  the  university 
depends  on  his  ability,  his  ambitions,  and  his 
circumstances.  Ought  he  to  be  contented  with 
what  education  he  has,  as  long  as  he  has  it  in 
his  power  to  obtain  more?  This  question  can- 
not be  wisely  answered  without  advice  based 
on  experience  and  knowledge.  The  temptation 
everywhere  is  to  be  satisfied  with  present  con- 

[*] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

ditions,  when  often  we  ought  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  them.  The  judgment  of  those  who  know 
should  outweigh  one's  personal  preferences  or 
the  wishes  of  parents  and  friends. 

When  I  first  entered  Phillips  Academy  at 
Andover,  I  spent  several  unhappy  days  in  a 
cheerless  room  in  the  Latin  Commons,  in  peni- 
tence over  my  decision.  It  seemed  to  me  then 
that  I  had  made  a  great  mistake  in  giving  up 
a  place  where  I  was  getting  twenty  dollars  a 
month,  only  to  waste  time  in  learning  the  Latin 
grammar.  Working  ten  and  a  half  hours  a 
day,  with  pleasant  companions,  to  produce 
something  that  other  people  needed,  looked  to 
me  like  a  better  occupation  for  a  young  man 
with  some  mechanical  ability  than  spending 
morning,  afternoon  and  evening  in  acquiring 
knowledge  of  a  subject  -that  had  no  practical 
value.  I  was  considered  a  good  workman,  and 
felt  sure  of  steady  employment.  I  had  begun 
to  have  visions  of  the  time  when  I  might  become 
a  member  of  some  firm,  with  leisure  to  devote 
to  country  politics,  when  I  might  hold  town 
offices,  and  perhaps  sometime  be  chosen  to  repre- 
sent the  district  in  the  legislature  of  the  state. 
That  was  the  not  unworthy  ambition  of  a  boy 
who  had  hardly  been  outside  the  limits  of  the 
little  town  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up. 

[5] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

As  I  look  back  over  the  intervening  half  cen- 
tury, I  am  not  now  sorry  that  some  influence 
came  into  my  life  to  send  me  away  from  home 
and  into  a  new  environment. 

If  we  can  do  so,  is  it  not  worth  while  to  live 
for  a  few  years  amid  traditions  that  have  stood 
the  test  of  time,  to  be  under  good  instructors, 
and  to  have  for  our  associates  some  of  the 
choicest  young  men  of  the  country?  Can  we 
live  in  such  company  and  amid  such  surround- 
ings without  being  better  for  it?  College  is  a 
good  place  in  which  to  correct  disagreeable 
habits,  and  to  discover  and  wear  off  the  rough- 
nesses that  annoy  our  friends.  Conceit,  selfish- 
ness, rudeness,  and  other  unworthy  traits  so 
common  in  youth,  will  be  taken  out  of  us  by 
Faculty  and  by  classmates,  unless  we  belong 
with  those  of  whom  Solomon  would  have  no 
hope,  even  though  they  be  brayed  in  a  mortar. 
The  few  years  spent  in  college  will  enable  a 
young  man  to  get  a  correct  estimate  of  his 
own  ability.  How  is  he  to  know  himself  until 
he  has  had  a  chance  to  take  his  measure  by 
coming  into  competition  in  many  ways  with 
other  young  men?  If  he  rates  himself  too  high 
or  too  low,  the  truth  will  be  revealed  to  him 
here.  In  the  days  when  scholarship  was  the 
object    of    a    student's    ambition,    there    were 


OPPORTUNITIES 

probably  men  in  every  class  who  came  expect- 
ing in  due  time  to  wear  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  key, 
but  whose  names  were  found  in  the  lowest 
division  when  the  class  was  arranged  according 
to  scholarship.  There  are  many  examples, 
also,  where,  under  the  stimulus  of  good  instruc- 
tion, unexpected  ability  has  been  discovered, 
perhaps  in  some  special  branch,  and  a  good  or 
even  high  scholar  has  been  developed  out  of  one 
who  never  gave  evidence  of  superiority  in  the 
school.  It  often  happens  that  one  becomes  a 
specialist  in  a  field  wholly  unknown  to  him 
before  he  entered  college. 

A  liberal  education  is  a  good  investment  for 
any  young  man  who  desires  it,  if  he  has  the 
health,  the  ability,  and  the  means  to  obtain  it, 
no  matter  what  occupation  he  may  afterward 
choose.  It  should  give  him  a  clearer  view  of 
the  purpose  of  life,  a  higher  ideal  of  manhood, 
a  broader  culture,  a  better  social  standing,  a 
love  of  books,  and  a  capacity  to  appreciate  the 
best  things.  But  college  is  no  place  for  one 
who  is  a  stranger  to  moral  principles,  or  who 
is  constitutionally  lazy,  or  who  has  a  positive 
dislike  for  mental  effort.  If  he  cannot,  or  will 
not,  get  interested  in  his  studies,  it  is  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  turn  to  some  other  occupation. 
There  is  not  only  no  profit,  but  there  is  no  real 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

pleasure  in  the  college  life  where  there  is  not 
the  consciousness  of  increasing  mental  attain- 
ment. 

It  costs  a  good  sum  to  go  to  college,  and  it 
takes  four  valuable  years  of  a  life  which  is  short 
at  best.  But  if  you  are  fond  of  study,  and  have 
shown  in  the  school  good  natural  ability,  and 
if  you  have  the  ambition  and  purpose  to  be  a 
man  of  influence  among  men  and  to  do  some- 
thing more  than  work  under  the  supervision  of 
others,  a  thorough  college  training  ought  to 
help  you.  If  you  enter  a  profession  by  a  short 
course,  you  will  soon  be  aware  that  the  greater 
part  of  your  professional  brethren  are  college- 
trained  men,  and  with  these  you  can  hardly 
expect  to  compete  on  equal  terms.  If  without 
further  education  you  turn  toward  business,  you 
may  find  by  and  by,  if  you  ever  become  an  appli- 
cant for  some  high  position,  that  among  the 
other  applicants  are  college  men  with  business 
experience,  whose  mental  training  has  been 
better  than  yours,  and  that  one  of  these  is  more 
likely  to  get  the  place.  It  is  of  course  possible 
that  you  may  get  some  special  training  in  busi- 
ness which  will  give  you  an  advantage  over  the 
college  man,  but  the  probability  is  that  you  will 
not. 

A  very  successful  high  school  teacher  once 

[8] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

expressed  to  me  the  opinion  that  where  the 
public  schools  furnish  preparation  for  college 
without  cost  to  the  parent,  many  boys  of  only 
average  ability  and  in  limited  circumstances  are 
encouraged  to  go  to  college,  who  can  never 
succeed  in  any  of  the  professions  for  which  this 
training  is  supposed  to  be  a  preparation. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  graduates  who  never  get 
a  pecuniary  return  from  their  college  educa- 
tion sufficient  to  justify  its  cost  to  themselves 
and  their  parents;  but  is  not  this,  in  most 
cases,  because  they  are  ambitious  to  obtain 
positions  which  they  have  not  the  ability  to 
fill?  vWhen  all  professions  are  crowded,  not 
every  man  with  a  bachelor's  degree  can  expect 
to  secure  a  large  number  of  clients  or  patients, 
or  to  receive  a  call  to  a  wealthy  church  or  an 
appointment  as  teacher  on  a  high  salary.  It 
is  not  likely,  however,  that  any  earnest  boy  of 
good  ability  will  make  a  mistake  in  getting  as 
much  education  as  his  circumstances  will  allow. 
If  the  college  graduate  is  willing  to  take  hold 
of  any  kind  of  work  for  which  he  is  adapted, 
there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not  do  it 
better  than  he  would  have  done  if  he  had  fin- 
ished his  book  education  when  he  left  the  high 
school;  and  he  ought  to  have,  all  his  life  long, 
the  higher  enjoyment  which  comes  from  years 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

spent  in  the  development  of  powers  which  would 
otherwise  have  remained  dormant.  He  may 
have  less  success  as  a  money-getter,  but  the 
object  of  a  college  is  not  to  fit  its  graduates 
to  earn  large  salaries. 

The  ambition  of  fathers  to  have  their  sons' 
social  position  better  than  their  own  often 
brings  boys  to  college  who  have  little  fondness 
for  intellectual  pursuits,  and  no  desire  to  get 
anything  out  of  college  except  a  good  time  and 
a  diploma.  I  would  not  say  that  such  sons 
ought  not  to  come,  if  they  can  meet  the  require- 
ments for  admission.  Many  of  them,  to  be 
sure,  make  only  a  short  stay,  but  some,  perhaps 
one  half,  continue  and  are  graduated.  If  they 
can  be  trained  to  habits  of  regularity,  and  can 
be  made  to  do  work  thorough  enough  to  keep 
a  safe  standing,  they  will  be  much  better  men 
for  the  experience;  and  the  probability  is  that 
before  they  reach  the  end  of  the  course,  the 
spirit  of  the  place  will  possess  some  of  them 
and  give  them  an  ambition  to  do  something  in 
the  world  worthy  of  their  opportunities. 

It  is  entirely  correct  to  say  that  no  youth  is 
old  enough  to  leave  home  safely  till  he  has  been 
thoroughly  grounded  in  right  principles.  Some 
are  never  old  enough  to  be  trusted  away  from 
home.  They  will  not,  when  fifty,  have  the 
[10] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

strength  of  character  sufficient  to  go  without 
a  guardian  in  the  midst  of  temptation.  But 
the  youth  who  has  been  well  brought  up,  and 
who  has  a  serious  purpose,  will  find  at  college 
the  influences  that  will  develop  the  good  that 
there  is  in  him.  If  he  is  to  leave  home  and  live 
among  others  of  his  age,  I  know  of  no  place 
where  there  are  more  safeguards  against  temp- 
tation and  where  the  influences  are  better. 

A  young  man  who  is  ambitious  for  higher 
education  need  not  lose  heart  because  his  means 
are  limited.  In  almost  all  colleges  there  are 
tuition  scholarships  for  those  who  need  them, 
and  show  themselves  worthy,  and  prizes  for 
those  who  have  the  ability  to  win  them.  If  one 
is  in  real  need,  he  should  not  hesitate  to  explain 
his  circumstances  fully  to  his  class  officer  or  to 
the  person  in  charge  of  the  beneficiary  funds; 
but  it  is  not  desirable  for  him  to  make  direct 
application  for  one  of  the  larger  undergraduate 
scholarships  which  are  assigned  by  the  Faculty 
for  special  excellence  of  character  and  attain- 
ment. The  fact  that  he  thinks  himself  worthy 
of  it  might  itself  be  taken  as  evidence  that  he  is 
not  quite  the  man  whom  the  donor  had  in  mind. 

A  student  who  is  willing  to  do  any  kind  of 
work  that  is  honorable  can  generally  find  ways 
of  earning  money.     He  may  not  be  able  to  see 

[iij 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

his  way  clearly  for  many  weeks  ahead,  but  if 
he  is  made  of  the  right  stuff,  it  is  not  likely 
that  he  will  have  to  leave  on  account  of  lack 
of  means.  Such  men  are  often  the  ones  who 
come  out  strongest  in  the  end.  They  have  so 
much  more  to  do  than  their  classmates  that 
they  learn  to  economize  their  time  and  to  work 
rapidly.  As  I  have  watched  the  development 
in  mind  and  character  of  those  who  have  been 
self-supporting,  I  have  often  said:  "Blessed  is 
the  student  who  has  to  work  his  way,  who 
knows  the  value  of  money  from  his  own  expe- 
rience, and  who  appreciates  his  opportunities 
because  he  knows  what  they  cost."  I  do  not 
think  a  man  is  less  esteemed  by  his  classmates 
because  he  is  self-supporting,  or  that  he  has 
less  chance  of  social  recognition  than  he  would 
have  with  a  modest  allowance  from  home.  An 
election  to  a  fraternity  is  not  really  an  honor 
unless  it  comes  unsought.  If  you  fail  to 
receive  honors  of  this  kind  because  you  have 
not  had  time  to  know  your  class  and  be  known 
by  them,  do  not  think  your  college  life  a  failure. 
You  have  gained  by  your  hard  experience  what 
may  be  worth  more  to  you  in  the  years  to  come. 
A  young  man  who  earns  his  way  in  college, 
wholly  or  in  part,  gets  a  kind  of  practical 
business  training  which  will  be  valuable  to  him 
[12] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

later,  whatever  his  vocation  may  be.  But  to 
do  full  college  work,  and  at  the  same  time  earn 
enough  to  pay  one's  whole  expenses,  is  ordi- 
narily too  great  a  tax  on  health  and  is  not  to 
be  recommended. 

You  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  success  in 
college  depends  much  on  good  preparation. 
You  go  to  your  school  to  prepare  for  the 
examination  which  assures  you  the  certificate 
of  admission.  Throughout  all  the  school  years 
you  have  always  this  definite  end  in  view. 
Whatever  else  your  teachers  may  do  for  you 
(and  they  ought  to  do  much  besides),  you 
expect  them  to  prepare  you  to  meet  any  test 
set  by  any  exanfiners.  It  is  best,  therefore,  to 
go  to  a  school  where  the  discipline  is  severe  and 
the  moral  standard  high.  But  you  must  be 
honest  with  yourself,  and  not  try  to  shine  with 
borrowed  light.  It  is  vastly  more  important 
that  you  should  learn  how  to  study,  and  that 
you  should  abstain  from  the  use  of  all  helps, 
than  that  you  should  take  a  high  rank  in  the 
school.  You  must  learn  how  to  take  hold  of  a 
piece  of  work  at  the  right  end.  You  must 
become  accurate  in  your  statements  and  be  able 
to  retain  in  mind,  and  have  at  command,  the 
knowledge  that  you  will  need  in  your  tests  for 
admission  to  the  higher  institution.  A  vague 
[13] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

idea  that  you  once  knew  something  about  a 
subject  will  not  help  you  more  in  an  examina- 
tion for  admission  than  it  would  in  the  practice 
of  your  profession.  In  answer  to  a  question  of 
Professor  James  Hadley  relating  to  a  certain 
period  of  Greek  history,  a  candidate  for  admis- 
sion to  Yale  once  made  substantially  this  reply : 
"I  remember  that  somebody  did  something 
during  that  period,  but  I  cannot  recall  who  it 
was,  or  when  it  was,  and  I  have  also  forgotten 
what  he  did  and  where  he  did  it." 

If  you  have  ability  and  the  advantages  of  a 
good  school,  you  should  be  prepared  to  enter 
college  when  about  seventeen.  For  one  who 
wishes  to  get  the  most  out  of  his  college  life,  it 
is  generally  unwise  to  begin  it  earlier.  But  if 
you  are  kept  back  by  unfavorable  circum- 
stances, it  is  better  to  enter  several  years  later 
than  to  come  poorly  prepared. 

It  is  unwise  to  enter  college  with  deficient 
preparation.  This  is  often  attempted,  for  the 
sake  of  economy,  by  students  who  are  under 
the  necessity  of  earning  money  with  which  to 
pay  their  college  expenses,  but  these  are  the 
very  ones  who  cannot  afford  to  run  the  risk. 
Suppose  such  a  student,  for  some  urgent  reason, 
were  allowed  to  enter  the  Freshman  class  with 
a  year's  deficiency.  He  must  during  Fresh- 
[14] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

man  year  do  practically  three  years'  work  in 
one.  He  has,  first,  the  regular  studies  of 
Freshman  year  to  complete;  second,  the  year's 
deficiency  in  preparation  to  make  up;  and, 
third,  in  addition,  the  task  of  supporting  him- 
self. Any  one  of  these  is  all  that  is  expected 
of  a  young  man  of  his  age,  who  does  nothing 
else.  This  unreasonable  burden  keeps  him  from 
taking  a  creditable  rank  in  scholarship,  allows 
him  no  time  to  become  acquainted  with  his 
classmates  or  for  outside  activities,  and  is  very 
likely  to  leave  him  with  impaired  health,  though 
the  results  of  over-work  may  not  immediately 
appear.  In  addition,  there  is  the  strong  proba- 
bility that  he  will  have  to  take,  after  all,  an 
extra  year  of  college  work  in  order  to  get  his 
degree.  There  are  indeed  cases  of  men  some- 
what mature,  who  have  entered  seriously  defi- 
cient in  preparation  and  have  nevertheless  made 
creditable  records.  The  regularity  and  indus- 
try necessary  for  them  at  the  beginning  of  the 
college  course  became  fixed  habits,  and  they 
grew  steadily  in  strength  from  year  to  year. 
But  these  are  not  to  be  taken  as  examples  by 
younger  men  who  have  had  better  advantages. 
For  one  with  many  deficiencies,  it  is  better  on 
all  accounts  to  wait  and  enter  a  year  or  more 
later,  well  prepared. 

[15] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

An  added  year  often  makes  a  great  change 
in  a  young  man's  ability  to  do  intellectual 
work.  Many  years  ago,  when  no  one  was 
allowed  to  join  the  Freshman  class  in  Yale 
College  till  all  conditions  were  made  up,  I 
repeatedly  examined  a  candidate  who  seemed 
to  me  extremely  dull.  Regularly  every  Sat- 
urday for  many  weeks  he  came  to  my  room  to 
go  through  the  form  of  an  examination.  I  felt 
so  sure  that  if  he  ever  got  in,  he  could  not  stay 
more  than  one  term,  that  I  was  several  times 
on  the  point  of  urging  him  to  give  up  the 
attempt  and  go  home,  but  decided  that  the 
responsibility  was  with  him  and  with  his  father. 
He  finally  removed  his  deficiencies,  but  so  late 
in  the  season  that  he  stayed  out  and  entered 
the  Freshman  class  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  college  year.  Then  he  disappointed  me 
altogether.  He  developed  slowly,  but  soon  did 
quite  satisfactorily  in  his  daily  recitations  and 
still  better  in  the  term  examination.  Instead 
of  being  dropped  at  the  end  of  the  first  term, 
as  I  had  predicted,  he  had  a  fairly  good  grade 
in  all  of  his  studies.  That  unpromising  candi- 
date became  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  man,  and  an 
ofiicer  of  his  class,  and  was  socially  prominent. 

Unless  one  expects  to  save  a  year  in  college, 
it  is  generally  a  waste  of  time  to  come  over- 
[16] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

prepared.  When  he  is  fully  ready  to  enter, 
why  should  he  take  another  year  in  school? 
The  result  often  is  that  he  finds  the  work  of  the 
extra  school  year  too  easy  and  forms  loose 
habits  of  study,  of  which  it  will  be  hard  for 
him  to  rid  himself  in  the  years  which  follow. 
If  a  young  man  in  good  health,  and  old  enough 
to  enter,  has  a  year  to  spare,  it  can  be  used  to 
much  better  advantage  after  graduation,  in 
general  culture,  travel,  or  extra  work  in  the 
professional  school. 

Little  need  be  said  about  the  choice  of  a  col- 
lege. If  the  father  is  a  college  man,  it  adds  to 
the  enjoyment  of  both  to  have  the  son  follow 
in  his  father's  footsteps.  I  have  never  been 
sorry  that  I  was  guided  by  the  advice  of  my 
pastor,  who  said  that  a  boy  brought  up  in  the 
country  should  go  to  a  city  college,  and  that 
a  boy  brought  up  in  the  city  should  go  to  a 
college  in  a  country  town.  Large  colleges  and 
small  both  have  their  advantages.  While  a 
bright  boy  in  a  small  college  does  not  gain  as 
much  by  measuring  himself  with  others,  all  or 
most  of  whom  are  his  inferiors,  the  competition 
in  a  large  college  may  dishearten  a  boy  of  only 
average  ability,  and  he  may  lose  his  ambition. 
If  the  college  is  small,  you  will  have  a  better 
chance  for  leadership  and  for  social  recogni- 
[17] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

tion;  if  it  is  large,  you  will  be  less  limited  in 
your  choice  of  associates  and  friends,  because 
there  are  so  many  to  choose  from,  but  you  may 
not  make  a  wise  use  of  these  opportunities.  I 
may  be  wrong,  but  I  do  not  believe  that,  unless 
the  coUege  is  unusually  small,  there  is  any  pref- 
erence for  one  over  the  other  on  the  ground 
of  close  relations  between  Faculty  and  students ; 
that  depends  mainly  on  the  spirit  of  the  men 
who  teach  and  the  attitude  of  individual  stu- 
dents toward  the  Faculty.  As  you  can  go 
through  college  but  once,  it  is  wise  to  choose 
the  institution  which  will  give  you  the  best  prep- 
aration for  life.  When  you  are  a  graduate, 
you  will,  of  course,  be  loyal  to  the  college  of 
your  choice,  but  you  will  take  greater  satisfac- 
tion if  that  is  one  which  has  a  world-wide 
reputation,  and  there  are  manifest  advantages 
in  being  connected  with  a  college  that  has  a 
large  body  of  alumni.  One  should  give  up  the 
idea,  if  he  ever  had  it,  that  attendance  at  any 
college  is  going  to  fit  him  for  life,  as  a  tailor 
fits  him  with  a  suit  of  clothes.  Let  him  get  all 
he  can  from  teachers,  from  good  companion- 
ship, and  from  .  the  traditions  of  the  place ; 
these  are  valuable  helps,  but  they  are  helps 
only.  The  real  good  comes  from  the  work  he 
does  himself.  Many  who  have  educated  them- 
[18] 


OPPORTUNITIES  . 

selves  without  the  help  of  schools  and  colleges 
have  proved  well-fitted  to  hold  the  most  respons- 
ible positions.  Every  educated  man  is  self- 
educated.  There  are  few  colleges  so  poor  that 
an  earnest  student  cannot  find  in  them  oppor- 
tunity for  sound  mental  training,  and  none  so 
good  that  a  man  without  purpose  cannot  abuse 
its  privileges  and  make  a  complete  failure. 

It  is  a  long  step  from  the  Senior  class  in 
school  to  the  Freshman  class  in  college.  With 
excusable  pride,  you  will  look  a  great  many 
times  at  your  name  in  the  catalogue  of  the  col- 
lege which  has  been  honored  and  loved  by  so 
many  generations  of  educated  men,  and  with 
some  feeling  of  humility  you  will  be  often 
reminded  that  there  is  no  class  in  the  whole 
institution  lower  than  your  own.  The  advance- 
ment brings  with  it  much  responsibility.  In  the 
school,  your  teachers  have  decided  for  you  what 
subjects  you  should  pursue,  and  have  taught 
you  how  to  study.  If  you  have  come  from  a 
good  school,  they  have  looked  after  your  health 
and  physical  development,  have  wisely  sur- 
rounded you  with  safeguards  against  tempta- 
tions to  idleness  and  dishonesty,  and  have 
taught  you  how  to  lay  the  foundations  of  an 
upright  character.  They  have  made  it  their 
aim  so  to  guide  you  that  you  should  be  self- 
[19] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

dependent  when  you  are  no  longer  in  their  care. 
In  college,  you  will  have  a  degree  of  freedom 
from  supervision  which  you  have  not  yet 
known.  It  will  be  assumed  that  you  are  a  man. 
The  responsibility  of  deciding  many  important 
questions  will  fall  mainly  upon  you.  The  col- 
lege will  advise  you,  as  the  school  has  hereto- 
fore done,  but  it  will  not,  and  ought  not  to, 
decide  your  questions  for  you.  Your  own 
development  as  a  strong  and  independent  man 
requires  that  you  be  self-reliant,  use  your  own 
judgment,  and  make  your  own  choices.  You 
will  have  to  meet  your  engagements  regularly 
and  promptly,  and  must  do  well  the  amount  of 
work  required  of  you;  but  the  college  will  not 
dictate  to  you  how  to  divide  your  time  between 
study  and  recreation,  or  how  to  occupy  the 
time  not  needed  for  strictly  college  work.  You 
will  be  held  responsible  for  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  your  duties  as  a  student;  but,  as 
long  as  you  do  not  neglect  these,  if  you  conduct 
yourself  as  a  worthy  member  of  the  community, 
you  will  have  as  much  freedom  as  any  good 
citizen  has. 

Do  not  undervalue  the  advantage  of  coming 

under  the  personal  influence  of  the  men  that 

make  up  the  Faculty.    They  have  been  selected 

for  their  positions  with  great  care,  some  because 

[20] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

of  their  skill  in  scientific  investigation,  some 
because  of  special  qualifications  as  instructors, 
but  all  because  of  their  ability  to  train  young 
men  in  the  process  of  education.  It  will  be  one 
of  your  great  privileges  to  know  them  and  feel 
the  inspiration  of  their  personality.  If  you  are 
a  good  student,  you  will  before  you  graduate 
count  some  of  your  instructors  among  your 
best  friends,  and  their  friendly  interest  in  you 
will  continue  long  after  the  close  of  your  stu- 
dent days.  I  do  not  know  any  class  of  men, 
anywhere,  in  whose  sincerity  and  integrity 
and  fitness  for  their  positions  I  have  more 
confidence. 

The  Faculty  are,  like  the  weather,  subject 
to  much  unfavorable  and  unjust  criticism. 
Fathers  generally  seem  to  think  that  the  fault 
is  with  the  Faculty  if  their  sons  form  bad  habits 
or  fail  in  their  studies.  If  the  college  loses  in 
debate,  the  Faculty  are  criticized  by  the  public 
for  poor  instruction;  if  it  loses  in  baseball  and 
football,  they  are  criticized  by  the  students 
and  the  alumni  for  lack  of  sympathy  with  ath- 
letics. It  seems  to  be  student  nature  to  blame 
the  Faculty  when  anything  goes  wrong  with 
the  college.  The  most  of  us  think  we  can  do 
another  man's  business  better  than  he  does  it, 
and  he  probably  thinks  the  same  regarding  us; 
[21] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

but  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  men  who 
are  devoting  their  lives  to  the  study  of  educa- 
tional problems  should  understand  better  how 
to  manage  an  institution  of  learning  than  those 
who  are  only  undergraduate  students  in  the 
institution.  When  tempted  to  say  hard  things 
about  your  instructors,  stop  a  moment  and 
think  how  much  they  have  to  put  up  with  in 
you.  Loyalty  to  the  college  should  lead  the 
student  to  co-operate  heartily  with  the  Faculty 
for  the  common  good.  Courtesy,  as  well  as 
duty,  demands  that  he  submit  cheerfully  to 
their  authority.  Whatever  he  may  think  of 
their  rules,  it  is  his  place  to  obey  them.  He 
promised  this  when  he  was  received  into  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  college,  and  the  only  honorable 
course  is  to  live  up  to  the  promise  in  a  manly 
way,  or  withdraw  quietly  and  go  to  some  other 
institution. 

The  first  year  in  college  generally  determines 
the  character  of  one's  whole  course.  If  you 
could  look  up  the  early  history  of  graduates 
who  have  attained  distinction  in  their  profes- 
sions or  in  public  life,  you  would  find  that  they 
were  mostly  men  of  regular  habits,  and  con- 
scientious, diligent  students  in  Freshman  year. 
They  may  not  have  shown  unusual  ability  at 
first,  but  they  were  honorable  men  and  hard 
[22] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

workers.  Bad  habits  of  study  in  Freshman 
year  are  seldom  overcome,  and  a  false  standard 
of  morals  then  is  likely  to  be  maintained  to  the 
end;  if  it  is  not,  it  will  give  one  a  reputation 
which  it  is  hard  to  live  down. 

There  are  about  six  hundred  universities,  col- 
leges, and  schools  of  technology  in  the  United 
States,  that  offer  their  privileges  to  any  young 
man,  without  regard  to  creed,  race,  or  color, 
who  can  satisfy  the  requirements  for  admission. 
The  greater  part  of  these  have  been  founded 
and  built  up  by  gifts  from  private  individuals; 
some  have  been  established  by  state  authority. 
The  endowment  and  equipment  represent  a  vast 
amount  of  capital;  yet  in  state  institutions 
instruction  is  given  to  the  children  of  the  state 
without  payment  of  tuition,  and  in  most  others, 
expenses  are  made  light  for  those  who  are  with- 
out means.  Even  where  full  tuition  is  paid,  it 
does  not  cover  more  than  one-half  of  the  actual 
cost  of  the  student's  instruction.  Why  are 
these  opportunities  offered  so  freely  to  all  who 
are  qualified  to  make  use  of  them?  The  pur- 
pose is  to  train  young  men  in  mind  and  char- 
acter for  public  service  and  for  good  citizen- 
ship, that  their  lives  may  be  a  contribution  to 
the  general  welfare. 

Talking  one  day  with  a  graduate  about  the 
[28] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

Chinese  students  in  American  colleges,  I  called 
his  attention  especially  to  their  excellent  schol- 
arship. He  said :  "But  you  must  remember  that 
the  Chinese  students  are  all  picked  men";  to 
which  I  replied  with  the  question:  "Are  not  all 
college  students  picked  men?"  There  are  not 
less  than  seven  millions  of  young  men  in  the 
United  States  between  the  ages  of  seventeen 
and  twenty-four.  What  a  small  part  of  these 
have  the  advantages  which  you  are  enjoying! 
You  have  been  selected  for  this  great  privilege, 
first,  by  inheritance.  Perhaps  it  was  your 
fortune  to  be  born  in  a  family  that  could  afford 
to  send  you  to  a  good  school  and  then  to  supply 
your  wants  in  college.  Perhaps,  instead  of 
wealth,  you  have  inherited,  what  is  far  better, 
the  indomitable  spirit  which  will  help  you  to 
make  your  way  anywhere.  If  you  are  already 
in  college,  you  have  been  selected  also  by  the 
tests  through  which  you  have  passed  in  the 
school  and  in  the  examination  for  admission, 
by  which  at  least  one-half  of  those  who  seek  to 
enter  are  left  somewhere  by  the  wayside.  Much, 
therefore,  ought  to  be  expected  of  you.  You 
have  no  right  to  use  for  selfish  ends  these  oppor- 
tunities, that  persons  unknown  to  you  have  sup- 
plied and  which  the  vast  majority  of  young  men 
cannot  have.  You  are,  in  a  certain  sense,  a 
[24] 


OPPORTUNITIES 

representative  of  the  public,  chosen  from  among 
the  young  men  of  the  country,  that  you  may 
be  prepared,  in  great  part  at  the  expense  of 
others,  for  some  service  which  you  are  to 
render  to  your  fellow  men. 


[26] 


n 

THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 


A  real  education  must  be  based  on  a  serious,  consecu- 
tive, progressive  study  of  something  definite,  teachable, 
and  hard. — Paul  Shorey. 

Thinking  is  learned  by  thinking. — President  Thwing. 

Providence  has  nothing  good  or  high  in  store  for  one 
who  does  not  resolutely  aim  at  something  high  and  good. 
A  purpose  is  the  eternal  condition  of  success. 

—T.  T.  Hunger. 

The  men  who  leave  their  mark  upon  the  world  are 
men  who,  when  it  comes  to  a  real  conflict  between  pur- 
pose and  pleasure,  care  more  for  the  former  than  for  the 
latter. — President  Hadley. 

Our  grand  business  is  not  to  see  what  lies  dimly  at  a 
distance,  but  to  do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand. — Carlyle. 

The  rising  generation  should  think  hard  and  feel 
keenly  just  where  the  men  and  women  who  constitute 
the  actual  human  world  are  thinking  and  feeling  most 
today. — President  Eliot. 

He  only  is  a  well-made  man  who  has  a  good  determi- 
nation.— Emerson. 

Books  are  lifelong  friends,  whom  we  come  to  love  and 
know  as  we  do  our  children. — S.  L.  Boardman. 


n 

THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

When,  at  the  close  of  the  Senior  year,  you 
look  back  upon  your  college  days,  you  will 
appreciate  the  advantages  that  have  come  to 
you  from  the  social  life  of  the  college  and  from 
the  part  you  have  taken  in  athletics  or  in  any 
other  outside  activities.  But  nothing  will  then 
gratify  you  so  much  as  a  consciousness  of  intel- 
lectual growth  and  the  knowledge  that  you  can 
do  more  and  better  work  than  you  could  have 
done  four  years  earlier.  If  you  find  that  you 
have  made  little  or  no  intellectual  progress,  you 
will  then  appreciate  the  loss,  your  regret  will 
be  sincere,  and  will  increase  with  the  passing 
years.  Much  as  there  is  that  is  valuable  out- 
side the  class-room,  the  real  object  of  your 
going  to  college  is  to  study,  to  come  under 
the  intellectual  stimulus  of  the  scholars  and 
teachers  that  make  up  the  Faculty,  and  to  get 
the  mental  training  and  culture  that  result 
from  doing  what  they  require. 

Men  fail  in  college,  as  elsewhere,  who  do  not 
have  before  them  a  definite  plan.  Where  there 
is  no  plan,  there  is  no  incentive  to  achievement 
[29] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

and  little  is  accomplished.  The  first  question, 
then,  is,  What  have  you  come  to  college  for? 
Your  present  ambition  as  a  student  is  perhaps 
to  rank  high  in  scholarship  and  wear  a  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  key,  or  to  win  a  place  on  the  editorial 
board  of  some  college  publication,  or  to  become 
qualified  to  represent  the  college  in  debate; 
these  aims  are  all  highly  commendable,  but  none 
of  them  should  be  considered  an  end  in  itself. 
If  your  main  purpose  is  for  college  success  only, 
then  you  may  not  be  getting  the  most  possible 
from  your  opportunities.  There  ought  to  be 
back  of  all  a  plan  of  life,  a  settled  purpose 
which  looks  out  into  the  future,  to  keep  you 
strong  and  steady,  and  enable  you  to  see  things 
in  their  right  light.  The  important  considera- 
tion is,  not  how  you  stand  with  the  Faculty  or 
with  your  fellows,  though  you  ought  to  stand 
well  with  both,  but  rather  how  you  will  stand 
in  your  profession  twenty  years  hence;  and, 
as  far  as  mental  equipment  goes,  that  will 
depend  less  on  your  published  grade  of  scholar- 
ship, or  the  honors  which  you  take  in  college, 
than  on  your  methods  of  study.  It  is  better 
not  to  win  scholarship  honors  than  to  win  them 
by  selecting  your  courses  and  preparing  your 
lessons  solely  with  that  end  in  view.  It  is  better 
not  to  make  the  debating  team  than  to  make  it 
[30] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

by  getting  some  one  else  to  do  your  thinking 
for  you. 

For  the  four  years  in  college  your  aim  should 
be  to  come  to  the  close  of  the  college  course 
prepared  to  take  up  the  work  which  will  await 
you,  with  strong  confidence  in  your  ability  to 
do  it  well.  In  all  your  plans  during  this  period, 
that  is  the  main  purpose  to  keep  in  view.  To 
gain  this  end,  you  will  need  to  go  out  from  col- 
lege with  a  well-disciplined  mind,  a  body 
capable  of  much  endurance,  and  a  character  in 
which  the  world  puts  faith. 

The  chief  object  of  a  college  education  is 
not  to  store  the  mind  with  knowledge.  It  is 
quite  possible  for  a  man  to  have  a  great  deal 
of  information,  without  the  ability  to  make 
use  of  it.  A  mind  full  of  facts,  but  untrained, 
has  been  compared  to  a  house  into  which  the 
furniture  of  half  a  village  has  been  thrown  on 
an  alarm  of  fire.  In  its  crowded  and  disordered 
condition,  it  is  of  as  little  use  to  the  owner  as 
if  it  were  empty.  The  amount  of  knowledge 
on  every  important  subject  is  so  great  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  the  mind  to  retain  it, 
and  a  waste  of  energy  to  try  to  retain  it  even 
if  it  were  possible.  To  be  well  equipped  in  his 
profession,  a  man  must  know  where  to  go  for 
any  material  in  his  special  line  which  it  becomes 
[81] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

necessary  for  him  to  have,  and  he  must  know 
also  how  to  make  use  of  it.  If  he  has  at  com- 
mand only  what  he  retains  in  mind,  he  is  out 
of  the  race,  in  competition  with  one  trained  to 
a  right  use  of  his  materials. 

Many  years  ago,  when  an  examination  in 
geography  was  required  for  admission  to  Yale, 
and  when  American  boys  knew  less  about  the 
Philippines  than  they  know  now,  a  candidate 
found  this  question  on  his  paper:  "Through 
what  bodies  of  water  would  you  sail  in  going 
from  London  to  Manila  ?"  He  wrote :  "I  would 
sail  down  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  enter  the 
Mediterranean,  go  through  the  Suez  Canal  into 
the  Red  Sea,  and  then — ^inquire."  He  did  not 
know  enough  to  satisfy  the  examiner,  but  he 
had  as  much  knowledge  of  the  subject  as  would 
be  needed  for  almost  any  other  purpose.  There 
are  plenty  of  books  and  maps  in  the  world,  and 
it  is  not  necessary  for  one  who  has  no  present 
intention  of  going  outside  the  limits  of  his 
native  country  to  burden  his  mind  with  all  the 
details  of  all  possible  voyages  which  could  be 
made  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  necessary 
thing  is  that  he  should  know  how  to  get  the 
information  when  he  needs  it.  Except  for  edu- 
cational or  other  special  purposes,  it  is  foolish 
to  attempt  to  fill  the  mind  with  material  that 
[32] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

can  e«wily  be  obtained  from  books  of  reference. 
Secretary  Bayard,  noticing  the  kind  of  ques- 
tions set  for  a  civil  service  examination, 
remarked  that  he  should  not  wish  to  have  in  his 
office  a  man  who  knew  the  population  of  all  the 
countries  of  Europe. 

I  would  not  underestimate  the  value  of  the 
knowledge  that  may  be  gained  in  the  class- 
room. One  cannot  devote  four  years  of  his 
early  manhood  to  an  intelligent  pursuit  of  the 
subjects  now  offered  in  the  course  of  study  of 
an  American  college  without  acquiring  inci- 
dentally a  great  deal  of  information  that  may 
be  valuable  in  after  life.  Whatever  seems  to 
him  likely  to  prove  valuable,  either  later  in  col- 
lege or  in  the  years  that  follow,  he  should  aim 
to  store  up ;  and,  as  the  mind  unaided  will  retain 
but  a  small  part  of  what  it  receives,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  he  learn  how  to  arrange  his  material, 
by  the  emplo3rment  of  modem  devices,  so  that 
he  can  readily  refer  to  it,  should  occasion 
require.  He  may  not  have  as  much  occasion 
as  he  now  supposes  to  use  the  knowledge  here 
gained,  but  he  should  learn  how  to  arrange  it 
systematically,  expecting  to  make  use  of  it. 

But  the  important  object  before  you  in  col- 
lege is  mental  training.  You  should  select 
your  courses  with  so  much  care,  and  do  your 
[88] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

work  in  such  a  way  that  when  you  graduate 
you  will  know  how  to  take  up  intelligently  any 
new  subject  and  readily  master  it.  When  you 
have  acquired  this  power,  you  may  rightly  be 
called  educated,  whether  you  obtained  the  edu- 
cation in  a  university  or  in  the  training  of  prac- 
tical experience. 

At  the  present  day,  the  college  student  is 
called  upon  to  select  a  part  or  all  of  his  courses, 
generally  with  important  limitations  in  the  ear- 
lier years.  Some  institutions  wisely  arrange 
the  studies  in  groups,  all  the  subjects  in  each 
group  being  fixed.  If  it  were  possible  to  group 
the  studies  so  that  each  student  could  be 
required  to  take  what  he  needs,  this  would  be 
better  for  him  than  freedom  of  choice  among 
many  courses.  When  he  selects  his  own  courses 
with  but  little  restriction,  the  temptation  is 
often  too  great  to  take  those  that  are  easy, 
or  that  furnish  information  and  entertainment 
only;  and  even  when  he  desires  to  get  the 
courses  that  are  best  for  him,  without  regard 
to  their  difficulty,  and  has  a  general  idea  of 
what  he  needs,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  for  him 
to  make  a  wise  selection.  He  knows  to  some 
extent  what  he  may  gain  by  continuing  sub- 
jects already  begun,  but  of  the  value  of  those 
new  to  him  he  is  in  a  poor  condition  to  judge. 
[34] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

Of  the  methods  employed  in  them  he  generally 
knows  only  what  other  students  tell  him.  The 
number  of  courses  open  to  him  is  often  large, 
and  from  the  many  which  he  wishes,  he  can 
select  only  a  few.  He  is  limited,  also,  in  his 
choice  by  the  schedule  of  recitations,  on  which 
he  often  finds  that  two  or  more  courses  which 
he  wishes  to  take  come  at  the  same  hour.  The 
result  is  that  many  delay  their  selection  till  the 
last  day  allowed,  and  then  make  up  the  list, 
influenced  by  what  their  companions  have 
taken.  This  is  not  worthy  of  being  called  a 
choice,  and  is  likely  to  be  followed  by  a  desire 
for  change  as  soon  as  the  list  has  been  handed 
in. 

To  learn  to  decide  important  questions 
wisely  is  part  of  a  young  man's  education.  He 
will  make  mistakes  at  first,  and  these  will  teach 
him  caution;  but  the  need  of  caution  will  not 
be  properly  impressed  upon  him  if  he  is  not 
required  to  adhere  to  his  decisions.  When  a 
student  is  allowed  to  select  his  studies,  he  ought 
to  feel  responsible  for  the  choice  after  it  is 
made,  and  under  obligation  to  justify  it  by 
showing  an  interest  in  the  studies  which  he  has 
selected.  If  he  finds  a  course  more  difficult 
than  he  expected,  he  should  put  forth  more 
effort.  To  think  of  giving  it  up  because  it  is 
[85] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

difficult,  or  because  he  does  not  like  it,  will 
weaken  the  will  power;  to  stick  to  it,  with  a 
determination  to  succeed,  will  make  a  stronger 
man.  It  will  be  worth  a  great  deal  to  any  one 
to  learn  early  not  to  make  a  decision  till  he 
has  taken  time  to  convince  himself  that  it  is 
wise,  and  to  feel  bound  by  the  decision  when 
it  is  made,  though  to  do  so  may  involve  per- 
sonal hardship.  If  this  becomes  his  practice, 
men  wiU  know  just  where  he  stands. 

You  should  select  your  courses  so  as  to  get 
a  good  all-round  education,  with  a  broad  and 
solid  foundation  of  academical  studies  on  which 
to  build  your  future  work.  Under  the  old 
system  of  required  courses,  the  Faculty  con- 
structed the  curriculum  mostly  of  subjects 
which  they  considered  best  for  mental  disci- 
pline, and  the  colleges  turned  out  strong  men. 
In  the  choice  of  studies  you  should  select  those 
that  require  a  reasonable  amount  of  hard  work. 
Too  easy  courses  waste  one's  time,  and  a  very 
difficult  schedule  may  demand  more  than  it  is 
wise  for  a  student  under  twenty  to  undertake. 
If  I  were  to  make  up  your  schedule  for  you,  I 
should  select  for  the  first  two  years  studies  that 
have  much  disciplinary  value,  as  mathematics, 
science,  and  the  ancient  and  modern  languages, 
and  leave  the  so-called  culture  studies  for  the 
[36] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

two  final  years.  You  will  be  much  better  quali- 
fied to  appreciate  and  enjoy  these  maturer 
studies  in  Junior  and  Senior  years,  and  you 
need  the  discipline  of  the  languages  and  the 
more  exact  sciences  first.  In  general,  no  one 
ought  to  graduate  from  college  without  a  good 
knowledge  of  English,  Latin,  mathematics, 
French,  German,  history,  political  science, 
philosophy,  and  some  of  the  physical  and  nat- 
ural sciences.  What  I  learned  in  physics  and 
astronomy  has  contributed  to  my  life  so  much 
that  has  been  helpful  and  interesting  that  I 
cannot  think  of  a  college  course  as  complete 
without  them.  I  had  also  a  great  deal  of 
Greek  and  Latin.  It  seems  to  me  worth  while 
for  the  student  of  good  ability  to  spend  time 
in  the  study  of  these  two  ancient  civilizations, 
from  which  we  have  derived  the  highest  ideals 
in  art  and  literature,  and  the  foundations  of 
law  and  government.  Greek  and  Latin  have 
been  taught  so  long  and  so  well  that,  in  the 
best  schools,  a  boy  can  get  a  more  thorough 
preparation  for  college  in  them  than  in  most 
other  subjects.  The  translation  of  the  best 
works  in  these  languages  into  good  idiomatic 
prose  affords  excellent  training  in  English, 
and  the  constant  practice  of  weighing  different 
views  and  interpretations,  each  of  which  may 
[87] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

be  defended,  and  of  choosing  the  one  which 
seems  best,  improves  the  judgment.  The  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin  is  the  best  preparation  for 
many  other  subjects  taken  up  in  college  or  in 
the  professional  and  graduate  schools.  But  the 
advantage  of  the  study  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages, or  indeed  of  any  language  or  of  any 
subject,  is  lost  in  great  measure  when  one 
begins  to  use  helps  in  preparing  for  recitations 
and  examinations. 

There  are  some  men  on  the  Faculty  whose 
instruction  you  will  want,  no  matter  what 
courses  they  offer.  The  personal  influence  of 
the  man  back  of  the  course,  and  his  methods, 
will  be  worth  so  much  that  no  substitute  will 
quite  compensate  for  their  loss.  Between  two 
courses  that  seem  equally  desirable,  it  is  better 
to  select  one  that,  because  it  requires  the  aid 
of  instructor  or  laboratory,  must  be  taken  in 
college  or  not  at  all,  in  preference  to  the  one 
which  you  can  read  up  outside. 

The  Faculty  will  no  doubt  see  to  it  that  at 
the  beginning  of  each  year  some  of  your  courses 
naturally  follow  those  already  taken,  so  that  a 
due  proportion  of  your  studies  may  be  con- 
secutive and  progressive.  Otherwise  you  might 
spend  too  much  time  on  work  that  is  purely 
elementary,  and  get  a  thorough  training  in 
[38] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

nothing.  A  student  should  have  one  subject 
in  which  he  does  the  best  work  of  which  he  is 
capable,  not  limiting  his  attainments  in  it  by 
what  his  instructors  demand,  but  learning,  as 
far  as  is  possible  for  him,  all  there  is  to  be 
known  about  it,  making  it  a  favorite  pursuit 
and  keeping  up  his  interest  in  it  after  leaving 
college.  If  it  is  something  entirely  outside  his 
profession,  it  may  continue  to  be  a  helpful 
stimulus,  as  well  as  a  pleasant  mental  recrea- 
tion, all  through  life.  Every  man  needs  some 
such  avocation  to  call  his  thoughts  away  from 
his  regular  duties,  and  he  will  get  more  satis- 
faction from  it  if  the  foundations  have  been 
laid  in  college,  under  the  guidance  of  an  enthu- 
siastic teacher. 

An  early  choice  of  one's  profession  will  help 
a  student  somewhat  in  the  selection  of  his 
courses  for  Junior  and  Senior  years.  Pros- 
pective students  of  medicine  or  law  or  theology 
can  generally  select  courses  that  will  be  helpful 
to  them  in  the  professional  school.  The  surest 
way  to  make  the  right  choice  here  is  to  get  the 
advice  of  the  dean  of  the  school  where  one 
intends  to  pursue  his  professional  studies. 
Many  courses  have  been  introduced  lately, 
designed  in  part  to  give  a  practical  training 
to  any  student  without  regard  to  his  profession, 
[89] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

but  intended  also  for  those  who  expect  to  go 
into  business.  One  who  is  preparing  for  busi- 
ness may  choose  -with  profit  courses  dealing 
with  money  and  credit,  commerce,  transporta- 
tion, trusts,  banking,  insurance,  the  science  of 
government,  and  hke  subjects. 

To  secure  good  results  from  college  work, 
one  must  be  thoroughly  interested  in  it.  He 
will  then  study  for  the  love  of  it,  and  will  not 
need  outside  pressure.  A  strong  man  is  not 
likely  to  keep  up  an  interest  in  courses  that 
are  easy.  We  become  interested  in  things  on 
which  we  spend  time,  not  in  those  which  require 
but  little  attention.  The  surest  way  to  main- 
tain a  genuine  interest  in  study  is  to  get  under 
stimulating  teachers,  who  are  systematic, 
demand  regularity  of  attendance  and  hard 
work,  and  know  how  to  make  things  clear,  and 
then  to  conform  strictly  to  their  demands. 

One  has  advanced  a  long  distance  in  mental 
training  when  he  is  able  to  concentrate  his 
attention  on  a  subject  which  he  wishes  to 
investigate.  The  attention  is  fixed  without 
difficulty  on  things  that  are  easy  and  enter- 
taining. A  boy  will  read  an  interesting  book, 
or  become  engaged  in  some  absorbing  game, 
and  be  utterly  insensible  to  the  flight  of  time; 
but  as  soon  as  a  difficult  mental  task  is  set 
[40] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

before  him,  the  mind  shrinks  from  the  effort 
and  is  constantly  wandering  to  other  and 
more  congenial  subjects.  The  chief  difference 
between  the  successful  and  the  unsuccessful 
man,  whatever  his  occupation,  lies  in  the  ability 
to  control  the  mind.  This  power  will  need  to 
be  acquired.  You  will  find  that  you  cannot 
bring  your  mind  under  control  without  much 
patient  effort;  but  it  can  be  done  if  you  are 
thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  you  must  learn  to 
do  it.  When  you  sit  down  to  study,  give  your- 
self wholly  to  the  task  before  you.  Avoid  all 
bodily  movements  that  may  tend  to  distract 
your  thoughts,  and  let  the  mind  have  a  chance 
to  work  uninterruptedly.  If  you  observe  a 
man  when  he  is  intensely  absorbed  in  anything, 
as  at  the  critical  point  in  a  game,  or  when 
watching  some  object  in  nature,  you  will  see 
that  for  the  moment  he  has  absolute  self- 
control.  An  audience  of  thousands  will  listen 
to  a  fine  passage  of  music  in  almost  perfect 
silence.  Can  you  not  learn  to  fix  your  mind 
on  your  work  to  the  same  degree?  When  you 
find  your  thoughts  wandering,  resolutely  call 
them  back  again  and  hold  them  as  closely  as 
you  can  to  the  task  till  it  is  completed.  Day 
after  day  and  month  after  month  of  this  expe- 
rience  will   gradually    secure    control    over    a 

[41] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

wandering  mind.  By  and  by  you  will  find  that 
you  can  do  in  one  hour  what  at  first  required 
two  or  three,  and  it  will  be  better  done.  Your 
ability  to  work  rapidly  and  thoroughly  will 
increase  with  each  succeeding  year,  until  you 
are  able  to  do  the  most  work  in  the  least  time. 

As  the  body  gains  its  full  power  by  regular 
and  systematic  exercise  through  a  long  period 
of  years,  so  the  mind  is  developed  by  doing  its 
daily  tasks  patiently  and  thoroughly.  Special 
efforts  put  forth  occasionally  may  not  be  with- 
out their  value,  but  such  mental  strain  does 
not  properly  develop  the  mind,  any  more  than 
occasional  over-exertion  develops  the  body.  It 
is  by  doing  conscientiously  the  duties  of  each 
day  that  one  acquires  the  strength  which  the 
great  occasion  demands. 

All  work  should  be  done  thoroughly,  whether 
one  likes  it  or  not;  but  if  any  part  of  it  is  to 
be  neglected,  let  it  not  be  the  tasks  that  are 
irksome.  These,  above  all  others,  are  to  be 
done  religiously.  In  after  life,  success  cannot 
be  attained  if  one  neglects  the  duties  that  are 
disagreeable.  It  is  not  so  very  difficult  to  get 
interested  in  an  unwelcome  task  when  one  has 
actually  begun  it;  the  hard  part  is  to  begin. 
Because  the  very  thought  of  it  is  annoying, 
you  continue  to  put  it  off,  and  keep  it  out  of 
[42] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

mind  as  long  as  possible.  The  way  to  deal 
with  it  is  to  take  hold  of  it  first  of  all.  DinUd- 
ium  iacii^  qui  ccepit,  habet.  If,  when  you 
have  before  you  several  things  to  do,  you  take 
up  and  finish  the  most  irksome  first,  the  others 
will  seem  light  and  you  will  have  a  comfortable 
satisfaction  in  place  of  the  cowardly  feeling 
which  otherwise  would  hang  over  you  till  the 
disagreeable  duty  is  done. 

If  the  work  seems  to  us  difficult,  let  us  take 
hold  of  it  with  courage  and  confidence,  and  we 
shall  find  ourselves  stronger  than  we  thought. 
We  do  not  know  whether  we  are  strong  or  weak 
till  we  take  up  some  hard  task.  The  difficulty 
of  it  will  make  it  necessary  for  us  to  do  our 
best,  and  we  shall  then  get  some  idea  of  what 
our  best  is.  It  is  certain  that  he  will  never 
become  a  strong  man  who  habitually  turns 
aside  to  avoid  things  that  are  difficult.  Man 
has  been  developed  by  facing  difficulties  and 
overcoming  them.  In  the  countries  where  there 
are  few  obstacles  to  contend  with,  men  are 
inferior.  A  life  of  ease  does  not  produce  men 
of  thought  and  action.  If  man  had  always 
lived  in  a  Garden  of  Eden,  with  nothing  to  do 
but  till  the  ground  and  eat  of  the  fruit  thereof, 
he  would  not  have  developed  the  strength, 
courage,  self-reliance,  and  pertinacity  which 
[48] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

came  from  subduing  a  world  which  brought 
forth  thorns  and  thistles  and  on  which  he  ate 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  By  doing 
hard  things,  we  get  the  strength  that  will 
enable  us  to  do  things  that  are  yet  harder. 

Never  urge  as  an  excuse  for  poor  work  that 
your  surroundings  are  unfavorable.  Remem- 
ber how  much  has  been  accomplished  by  those 
with  no  early  advantages  or  with  bodily 
infirmities  which  would  have  been  for  most  of 
us  sufficient  reason  for  idleness.  No  surround- 
ings can  be  so  unfavorable  as  to  keep  a  young 
man  who  has  health  and  ability  from  making 
much  of  himself,  if  he  follows  steadfastly  an 
earnest  purpose. 

Learn  to  think  for  yourself.  Do  not  lean 
on  the  support  of  others.  One  of  the  worst 
evils  from  using  helps  in  study,  aside  from  the 
dishonesty  of  it,  is  that  one  loses  confidence  in 
his  own  judgment  and  does  not  dare  to  express 
an  opinion  on  any  subject  until  it  is  supported 
by  some  one  else.  A  young  man  takes  up  in 
college  a  certain  line  of  study,  which  leads  to 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  or  Bachelor  of 
Philosophy.  To  prove  himself  worthy  of  the 
degree,  he  is  required  to  complete  a  certain 
amount  of  class-room  work.  But  the  real  pur- 
pose of  the  college  is  not  that  he  may  accom- 
[44] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

plish  this  amount  of  work,  nor  even  that  he 
may  secure  the  degree;  it  is  rather,  as  has 
already  been  said,  that  he  may  gain  the  train- 
iag  in  mind  and  character  which  comes  from 
doing  the  work.  He  can  have  this  training 
only  by  doing  the  work  himself.  If,  therefore, 
he  gets  it  done  for  him  and  then  presents  it  as 
his  own,  he  is  defeating  the  object  for  which, 
often  at  great  sacrifice  to  his  family,  he  is 
spending  in  college  the  best  years  of  his  life. 
Instead  of  developing  into  a  strong  man,  he 
is  growing  weaker  in  character  and  intellectual 
power  from  year  to  year,  and  may  be  really 
less  fitted  to  take  up  the  serious  business  of  life 
at  the  end  of  his  course  than  he  was  at  the 
beginning.  There  is  a  certain  satisfaction  in 
having  done  one's  work  well,  which  more  than 
compensates  for  all  the  hard  struggles  and 
self-denial  involved  in  doing  it  well,  and  the 
joy  that  comes  with  the  consciousness  that 
one's  mental  powers  are  growing  stronger  is 
like  the  joy  of  existence  in  a  perfectly  healthy 
body. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  think- 
ing that  mental  training  may  be  lightly 
regarded  by  students  who  plan  to  enter  busi- 
ness. A  capable  business  man  is  not  developed 
by  doing  things  that  require  no  thought.  In 
[45] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

more  recent  years,  there  has  been  a  steadily 
increasing  demand  for  college  men  in  business. 
It  was  once  believed  that  if  a  boy  was  marked 
out  for  a  business  career,  college  for  him  would 
mean  a  waste  of  time;  but  a  college  graduate, 
who  has  reaUy  earned  his  diploma  by  hard 
work,  has  had  just  the  discipline  which  will 
enable  him  to  succeed  in  modern  business.  It 
is  not  the  possession  of  a  diploma  that  makes 
his  services  valuable,  but  the  hard  work  which 
he  did  in  order  to  get  the  diploma.  It  is  true 
that  he  must  be  willing  to  begin  where  his 
untrained  brother  began ;  but  the  man  who  has 
learned  to  concentrate  his  attention  on  one 
subject  and  who  knows  how  to  take  hold  of  a 
new  problem  as  a  rule  soon  outstrips  his  com- 
panion who  decided  to  enter  business  without 
collegiate  study,  and  within  one  or  two  decades 
has  ten  chances  for  the  larger  success  which 
every  man  wishes  to  achieve,  where  the  un- 
trained man  has  one.  I  would  not  advise  any 
one  to  enter  upon  a  college  course  in  order  to 
be  better  equipped  for  making  money.  But 
for  a  young  man  of  good  sense  and  business 
capacity,  a  mind  disciplined  by  thorough  study 
is  a  valuable  possession,  even  when  estimated 
wholly  from  a  business  point  of  view. 

In  a  debating  society  in  a  small  New  Eng- 
[46] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

land  village  a  few  years  since,  one  question 
under  discussion  was:  "Which  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred, education  or  money?"  The  society 
decided,  I  think,  that  money  was  to  be  pre- 
ferred. There  were  two  boys  in  the  village  who 
became  deeply  interested  in  that  question,  and 
carefully  considered  the  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages of  a  college  course.  Both  were 
without  means,  and  in  ability  and  character 
seemed  then  not  very  much  unlike.  One  chose 
to  study  and  earn  his  way  as  best  he  could, 
ignoring  the  thought  of  making  money;  the 
other  gave  up  further  study  to  engage  in  busi- 
ness, because  it  gave  promise  of  a  more  imme- 
diate income.  These  boys  met  not  long  ago 
and  compared  results.  The  one  who  preferred 
money  to  education  had  tried  different  kinds 
of  employment,  each  of  which  he  had  given  up, 
either  because  it  did  not  satisfy  him  or  because 
advancement  in  it  was  slow,  and  he  had  just 
taken  a  new  position,  in  which  he  was  receiving 
the  usual  small  compensation  of  a  beginner. 
The  boy  who  preferred  education  to  money 
was  a  Junior  in  college,  ranking  well  in  scholar- 
ship and  paying  his  way  by  tutoring  his  class- 
mates in  their  studies.  His  working  hours 
were  several  times  less,  yet  his  monthly  income 
was  at  least  twice  as  great;  and  it  should  be 
[471 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

remembered  that  he  was  devoting  the  greater 
part  of  his  time  to  his  college  studies  and  that 
he  took  for  earning  money  only  the  two  or 
three  hours  each  day  that  he  did  not  need  for 
his  regular  occupation.  His  chief  compensa- 
tion was  not  the  sum  which  was  paid  him  for 
giving  private  instruction,  but  the  mental 
training  which  he  was  getting  in  college.  It 
does  not  follow,  of  course,  that,  if  the  young 
man  who  chose  to  study  adopts  teaching  as  a 
profession,  the  other  who  chose  business  will 
not  have  a  much  greater  income  within  the  next 
ten  or  twenty  years ;  nor  does  it  follow  that  he 
will.  But  if  both  become  business  men,  it  is 
certain  enough  that  the  man  with  the  trained 
mind  will  be  the  one  to  receive  steady  advance- 
ment. A  student  who  pays  his  way  in  college, 
and  also  ranks  well  in  his  class,  is  getting  an 
excellent  training  for  business. 

Your  intellectual  work  should  not  be  limited 
by  the  requirements  of  the  class-room,  but 
should  include  also  a  good  deal  of  voluntary 
reading  and  writing.  In  the  college  library  is 
stored  as  much  as  the  institution  is  able  to 
gather  of  the  thought  of  the  wisest  men,  from 
the  earliest  time  to  the  present  day.  This 
information  lies  at  your  command,  as  far  as 
you  are  able  to  make  use  of  it.  If  you  are 
[48] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

interested  or  can  get  interested  in  any  subject, 
the  opportunity  to  pursue  it  is  here.  There  is 
far  less  reading  of  good  books  in  college  today 
than  there  was  fifty  years  ago,  when  there  was 
little  to  read  except  books,  and  those  mostly 
good.  The  over-supply  of  newspapers  and 
magazines  has  resulted  in  the  neglect  of  the 
library  by  the  average  college  student,  and  the 
percentage  is  not  large  of  those  who  read  good 
library  books,  except  upon  the  requirement  of 
the  instructor. 

To  know  a  book  thoroughly  is  to  know  the 
author,  and  here  is  your  opportunity  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  good  and  great  of  former 
days.  What  an  influence  such  an  acquaintance 
has  on  a  young  man's  life!  The  great  writers 
have  left  us  in  their  works  the  best  part  of 
themselves.  Shakespeare  to  us  now  is  not  a 
man  who  lived  three  hundred  years  ago  and 
wrote  plays  for  the  stage,  but  rather  a  collec- 
tion of  unrivaled  literature  which  bears  his 
name.  What  matters  it  to  us  what  his  personal 
history  was,  when  every  thinking  man  has  in 
his  own  library  the  collection  of  literature  into 
which  he  put  his  thought?  That  volume  in 
your  library  is  more  truly  Shakespeare  than 
the  body  of  flesh  which  his  contemporaries  saw. 

The  books  that  you  habitually  read  will  be 
[49] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

an  index  of  your  character  and  purpose.  It  is 
wise,  therefore,  to  begin  right.  As  you  can 
read  only  a  Kmited  number  of  books,  by  all 
means  select  the  best.  Life  is  too  short  to  waste 
one's  time  in  reading  bad  or  inferior  books, 
when  there  are  so  many  which  are  excellent. 
One's  own  self-respect,  his  regard  for  his  home 
and  the  companions  and  friends  who  believe  in 
him,  should  keep  him  from  reading  books  which 
are  vulgar  or  immoral,  or  which  border  on 
immorality.  Everybody,  of  course,  will  read 
the  newspapers  for  the  record  of  current  events, 
and  the  magazines  to  keep  up  with  the  progress 
of  the  age.  In  addition,  one  should  also  read 
the  books  with  which  every  educated  man  ought 
to  be  familiar,  including  some  of  the  best  works 
of  the  historians,  the  biographers,  the  essayists, 
the  novelists,  and  especially  the  poets.  With- 
out the  information  and  culture  which  such 
reading  affords,  you  will  lack  something  in  your 
mental  equipment  which  others  will  notice  and 
of  which  you  will  be  too  well  aware. 

Be  thorough  and  systematic  in  your  reading. 
Read  books  that  make  you  think,  and  read 
them  so  as  to  become  master  of  the  author's 
thought.  After  having  read  an  article  or  a 
chapter  in  a  book  that  interests  you,  it  is  good 
practice  to  write  out  the  substance  of  it  from 
[50] 


THE  MAIN  PURPOSE 

memory.  Much  careless  reading  lessens  one's 
power  to  reproduce  what  he  has  read.  "Look- 
ing at  print,"  as  Charies  R.  Brown  calls  such 
reading,  adds  nothing  to  one's  knowledge  and 
weakens  rather  than  strengthens  the  mental 
grasp.  The  man  who  regularly  devours  the 
newspaper  often  cannot  recall  even  a  witticism 
after  an  hour;  much  less  can  he  give  you  the 
thought  of  an  editorial. 

To  become  a  good  writer  ought  to  be  a 
student's  ambition.  This  power  is  attained 
only  by  long  and  careful  practice.  The  best 
preparation  for  writing  is  thorough  study  and 
an  extensive  and  careful  reading  of  good  books. 
It  is  of  httle  use  to  be  able  to  write  grammati- 
cally, and  even  fluently,  if  you  have  nothing  to 
say.  The  thought  may  be  very  simply  and 
plainly  stated  and  still  be  attractive  and  com- 
mand attention.  By  reading  good  literature 
and  by  practice  under  the  guidance  of  an 
instructor,  you  can  acquire  a  style  which  is 
your  own ;  and  your  own  style  is  better  for  you 
than  a  style  imitated  from  some  one  else. 

In  the  city  or  town  in  which  your  life  is  to  be 
spent,  you  will  be  looked  up  to  as  an  educated 
man.  Even  if  you  do  not  care  now  to  become 
a  writer  or  speaker,  you  may  be  called  upon 
then  to  represent  your  community,  or  some 
[61] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

part  of  it,  in  situations  where  it  will  be  of  great 
advantage  to  be  able  to  express  your  opinions 
intelligently,  either  on  your  feet  or  with  your 
pen.  You  will  wish  then  to  have  something  to 
say,  and  to  be  able  to  say  it  in  clear,  con- 
cise and  forcible  language.  Take  advantage, 
therefore,  of  the  opportunities  which  college 
now  offers,  either  in  the  course  of  study  or  in 
the  student  publications  or  in  the  societies,  to 
gain  facility  in  writing  and  in  speaking.  You 
will  find  few  college  graduates  who  will  not 
heartily  commend  this  advice. 


[62] 


Ill 

HEALTH,   RECREATION,   AND 
EXERCISE 


The  possession  of  health  should  be  a  matter  of  hearty, 
honest  pride.  I  would  have  one  hold  himself  ashamed 
who  has  not  a  man's  share  of  manly  vitality. 

—T.  T.  Hunger, 

There  is  more  spiritual  misery  and  original  sin  in 
imperfect  digestion  than  in  most  human  hearts. 

— President  Canfield, 

Misce  stultitiam  comiliis  brevem. — Horace. 

The  collegian's  standard  of  purity  in  his  sports  should 
be  the  highest. — Walter  Camp. 

In  my  school  days,  my  lessons  were  better  got  in  foot- 
ball season,  when  loyalty  to  the  captain  compelled  me 
to  interrupt  the  study  for  the  game. 

—Herbert  W.  Fisher. 

Go  forth  under  the  open  sky  and  list  to  Nature's 
teaching. — Bryant. 

When  on  the  breath  of  autumn's  breeze. 

From  pastures  dry  and  brown. 
Goes  floating  like  an  idle  thought 

The  fair  white  thistledown, 
O  then  what  joy  to  walk  at  will 

Upon  the  golden  harvest  hill! 

— Mary  Hovntt, 


in 

HEALTH,  RECREATION,  AND 
EXERCISE 

No  one  expects  a  college  student  to  devote 
his  time  wholly  to  study.  A  great  deal  ought 
to  be  gained  from  college  which  the  class-room 
cannot  supply.  There  are  opportunities  for 
usefulness,  for  self-improvement,  and  for  enjoy- 
ment in  many  directions,  some  of  which  will 
not  come  again.  Every  student  should  include 
in  his  plans  some  regular  form  of  outside 
activity.  The  mistake  is  in  allowing  this  to 
ab9orb  so  much  attention  that  it  becomes  his 
chief  occupation.  The  youth  who  excused  him- 
self to  the  class  officer  for  his  low  standing  on 
the  ground  that  he  had  so  much  to  do  in  ath- 
letics that  he  had  not  time  for  "outside  work" 
had  come  to  believe,  for  the  moment  at  least, 
that  his  studies  were  of  secondary  importance, 
and  that  his  duties  on  the  team  rightfully 
took  precedence  of  all  else.  He  might  have 
expressed  the  same  view  by  saying  that  he  did 
not  intend  to  let  his  studies  interfere  with  his 
college  work. 

If  one  enters  properly  fitted,  with  good 
[65] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

health  and  good  habits  of  study,  he  can  do  his 
class-room  work  thoroughly  and  also  rapidly, 
and  have  left  all  the  time  needed  for  outside 
activities.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  debat- 
ing, or  dramatics,  or  music,  or  competition  for 
the  college  publications,  or  any  form  of  ath- 
letics, should  interfere  with  one's  studies  if  he 
has  come  with  adequate  preparation,  lives 
according  to  some  plan,  and  is  not  dawdHng 
when  he  thinks  he  is  studying.  The  best 
scholars  in  a  class  are  often  among  the  best 
writers  and  speakers,  and  some  of  the  very  best 
athletes  have  ranked  high  in  scholarship. 

One  constant  aim  of  every  student  should 
be  a  healthy  physical  development.  Whatever 
other  things  you  may  sometime  possess,  these 
will  never  be  your  own  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
your  body  is  your  own.  Other  possessions  you 
will  use  and  pass  on  to  others.  They  may  be 
exchanged;  they  may  even  be  destroyed,  and 
you  suffer  no  real  loss.  If  you  do  not  like  your 
house,  you  may  take  it  down  and  build  another. 
But  your  body  is  actually  your  own.  It  may 
be  strong,  or  it  may  have  imperfections;  but 
one  thing  is  sure, — it  is  your  body,  and  you 
will  never  have  any  other.  It  will  be  your  pos- 
session till  your  last  day  on  earth.  You  may 
destroy  it,  but  you  cannot  replace  it.  When  it 
[56] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

ceases  to  act,  your  place  here  becomes  vacant. 
As  with  all  material  things,  the  care  taken  of 
it  (barring  accident)  determines  how  long  it 
will  last.  You  may  abuse  it,  and  it  will  break 
down  early ;  or  you  may  use  it  reasonably,  and 
it  will  last  to  a  good  old  age.  What  it  will  do 
for  you  depends  not  more  on  inheritance  than 
on  care.  Indeed,  great  length  of  life  has 
sometimes  been  due  to  bodily  weakness  in  youth. 
In  my  Freshman  year  I  saw  President  Jere- 
miah Day  occasionally,  at  morning  chapel  and 
at  the  Sunday  religious  services.  He  was  then 
a  very  old  man.  In  his  thirtieth  year,  when 
serving  as  tutor,  his  health  failed  and  he  was 
forced  to  abandon  his  work  before  entering 
upon  the  duties  of  the  professorship  to  which 
lie  had  recently  been  elected.  A  fellow  tutor 
wrote  to  Professor  Silliman,  then  in  Phila- 
delphia: "I  have  lately  heard  from  Mr.  Day. 
He  is  no  better,  but  rather  worse.  Dr.  Dwight 
told  me  a  short  time  since  that  he  had  given  up 
the  expectation  of  ever  seeing  Mr.  Day  in  the 
professor's  chair.  That  such  a  man  should  be 
cut  off  in  the  very  bloom  of  life  is  to  human 
eye  dark  and  mysterious."  But  Mr.  Day  was 
not  to  be  cut  off  in  the  very  bloom  of  life. 
From  this  experience  he  learned  so  well  how  to 
take  care  of  himself  that  he  added  to  his  life 
[57] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

more  than  three  score  years.  He  lived  to  serve 
the  college  fourteen  years  as  a  professor  of 
mathematics  and  twenty-nine  years  as  presi- 
dent ;  twenty  years  after  withdrawing  from  the 
presidency,  he  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-four. 
Samuel  Nott,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  in 
1780,  was  "feeble  and  sickly  when  young,"  but 
by  great  care  he  became  strong  enough  to  con- 
tinue unaided  in  one  pastorate  nearly  sixty- 
six  years,  and  died  as  the  result  of  an  acci- 
dent in  his  ninety-ninth  year.  Many  similar 
examples  might  be  given.  If  men  who  inherited 
feeble  constitutions  could  by  wise  care  be  active 
till  seventy  or  eighty,  what  may  not  the  young 
man  accomplish,  by  the  same  care,  who  has 
inherited  a  strong  constitution? 

How  few  years  you  will  have,  at  best,  for 
3^our  life  work!  You  will  hardly  enter  upon  it 
before  your  thirtieth  year;  and  if  you  last  till 
three  score  and  ten,  there  will  be  left  but  forty 
years  of  activity  in  your  profession.  And  what 
are  forty  years.?  Made  up  of  only  ten  periods, 
each  of  the  length  of  the  brief  course  in  col- 
lege !  You  will  just  begin  to  feel  that  you  have 
become  master  of  your  calling  and  are  ready 
to  do  your  best  work,  when  the  body  will  begin 
to  show  itself  unequal  to  the  strain.  This  is 
not  a  reason  for  entering  on  your  work  earlier, 
[58] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

before  you  are  mature  and  well  prepared,  for 
that  might  shorten  your  period  of  activity 
rather  than  lengthen  it;  it  is  rather  a  reason 
for  taking  such  care  of  the  body  that  you  may 
long  continue  to  be  active  and  useful.  The 
vitality  of  a  healthy  body  gives  a  man  the  con- 
fidence to  take  up  positions  of  responsibility 
and  the  strength  to  meet  successfully  the  duties 
and  overcome  the  obstacles  which  he  will  have 
to  face.  To  a  college  man,  health  should  be  the 
first  consideration.  It  is  a  question  whether 
it  is  wise  for  one  without  sound  health  to  go  to 
college.  While  I  would  not  discourage  him 
from  making  the  attempt,  I  should  say,  unhesi- 
tatingly, get  health  first  and  college  later. 

Whether  a  man  is  old  or  young  does  not 
depend  altogether  upon  the  number  of  years 
since  his  birth.  In  reckoning  time,  the  Romans 
looked  forward  as  well  as  backward.  In  its 
relation  to  your  life  and  your  usefulness,  the 
question  of  age  depends  more  on  the  years 
before  than  on  those  behind  you.  The  essential 
consideration  is,  how  much  of  your  vitality  have 
you  used  up,  and  how  much  have  you  left?  A 
student  who  graduates  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
with  a  body  enfeebled  by  overwork,  neglect,  or 
dissipation,  and  unable  to  resist  disease,  whose 
Kfe  is  not  likely  to  reach  out  beyond  his  thirtieth 
[59] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

or  fortieth  year,  is  really  older  than  his  class- 
mate of  twenty-eight  who  has  the  prospect  of 
being  able  to  do  a  man's  work  till  he  is  seventy. 
When  considering  a  person's  age,  we  always 
ask,  How  old  is  he?  i.e.,  how  long  since  he  was 
born ;  a  more  important  question  is,  How  young 
is  he?  And  this  depends  at  least  as  much  on 
the  years  of  his  Hfe  still  remaining  as  on  those 
already  spent.  If  a  student  in  college,  with  his 
opportunities  to  learn  about  himself  and  with 
the  equipment  and  time  allowed  him  for  physical 
development,  will  give  due  attention  to  the  laws 
of  health,  he  may  reasonably  expect  to  lengthen 
his  active  life  by  many  years  and  to  be  a  young 
man  at  fifty  or  sixty. 

A  man  thinks  as  little  as  possible  about  his 
health  till  he  has  lost  it.  The  vigorous  youth 
does  not  believe  that  what  has  happened  to 
others  will  happen  to  him.  He  has  a  vague 
idea  that  he  is  destined  by  the  fates  to  a  long 
life,  whether  he  takes  any  care  of  himself  or 
not;  or  he  feels  strong  enough  now  and  cares 
nothing  about  the  future.  He  will  leave  the 
future  to  take  care  of  itself.  But  because  you 
are  strong,  that  is  the  very  reason  why  you 
should  not  dissipate  the  natural  energy  that 
God  and  nature  have  given  you.  You  are  not 
wholly  your  own;  you  are  a  part  of  the  best 
[60] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

assets  of  your  family,  of  your  town,  of  the  col- 
lege in  which  you  are  being  educated.  You 
owe  it  to  all  these  interests  to  preserve  your 
body  pure  and  strong  for  a  service  as  efficient 
and  long  as  possible.  If  you  have  inherited  a 
strong  and  healthy  body,  you  are  under  espe- 
cial obligations  to  take  care  of  it,  as  you  would 
of  any  priceless  possession.  Yet  because  you 
now  feel  the  glow  of  health,  you  naturally 
tliink  that  no  care  is  necessary,  that  you  can 
disregard  the  laws  of  health,  eat  and  drink 
what  and  when  and  as  much  as  you  will,  neglect 
exercise  and  sleep,  and  run  into  any  form  of 
excess.  You  can  do  this  if  you  choose,  but  you 
will  sooner  or  later  pay  the  penalty.  Though 
the  penalty  be  long  delayed,  it  is  sure  to  come, 
and  it  will  not  be  light.  It  is  nowhere  more  true 
than  in  matters  of  health  that  "the  way  of  the 
transgressor  is  hard,"  and  that  "whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  Good 
health  is  a  birthright  too  precious  to  be  bar- 
tered away  thoughtlessly.  The  secret  of  health 
for  you  is  simple.  It  is  found  in  fresh  air,  pure 
water,  proper  exercise,  frugal  and  wholesome 
diet,  and  plenty  of  sleep.  If  you  will  make 
sure  of  these,  and  in  addition  avoid  all  forms  of 
dissipation  and  never  worry,  you  will  have  little 
occasion  to  think  about  your  health. 
[61] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

But  one  may  have  physical  weaknesses  which 
he  does  not  himself  detect,  and  which,  if  not 
corrected,  may  lead  to  serious  results.  The 
colleges  now  furnish  to  the  student  the  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  by  a  physical  examination  where 
his  body  is  below  the  normal  standard,  and 
what  exercises  he  should  take  to  strengthen  the 
weaker  parts  so  that  he  may  become  a  well- 
developed  man.  This  is  a  privilege  which  every 
one  ought  gladly  to  accept. 

Intellectual  tasks  are  harder  than  physical, 
and  to  keep  in  good  condition  a  man  who  does 
hard  intellectual  work  must  have  recreation; 
but  the  recreation  must  be  wholesome  and 
healthful,  and  it  must  not  be  so  absorbing  as  to 
take  the  place  of  the  regular  occupation.  Many 
people  at  the  present  day  seem  to  have  adopted 
recreation  as  their  profession.  Some  students 
get  a  certain  degree  of  relaxation  by  turning 
from  their  daily  tasks  to  another  kind  of  intel- 
lectual pursuit.  The  mind,  like  the  body,  is 
rested  by  change  of  occupation.  But  this  is 
not  enough.  At  some  time  each  day, — and  if 
convenient,  at  the  same  hour, — throw  aside  all 
intellectual  work  and  give  yourself  up  for  the 
time  to  some  exercise  that  affords  entire  relaxa- 
tion. This  will  bring  you  back  again  to  your 
book  or  pen  with  your  mind  fresh  and  active. 
[62] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

Make  relaxation  a  rule.  If  you  try  to  get  on 
without  it,  the  mind  will  lose  its  grip. 

Each  must  discover  for  himself  what  is  the 
best  kind  of  recreation  and  exercise;  one  pre- 
scription will  not  fit  all  cases.  What  is  one 
man's  play  may  be  another's  work.  The  man 
who  toils  with  his  hands  is  rested  and  refreshed 
by  an  evening  spent  with  books,  and  the  student 
finds  relaxation  in  doing  things  which  are  work 
when  done  to  earn  one's  living.  You  find  relax- 
ation in  walking  about  the  streets  of  the  city, 
but  the  postman  does  not.  The  student  of 
seventy  years  ago  sawed  wood  to  earn  money, 
and  was  satisfied  with  this  for  exercise.  He 
felt  no  need  of  gymnastics  or  athletics.  But 
most  modern  students  would  hardly  accept  as 
a  satisfactory  form  of  exercise  any  kind  of 
activity  to  which  a  money  value  could  be 
affixed,  even  if  it  produced  as  good  results. 
The  students  of  former  days  were  round- 
shouldered  and  dyspeptic.  The  modern  forms 
of  exercise  and  recreation  produce  better 
physical  development. 

Athletic  sports  are  undoubtedly  the  best 
form  of  physical  exercise  for  most  young  men, 
combining  healthful  activity  in  the  open  air 
with  wholesome  recreation.  They  demand  that 
generous  rivalry  which  leads  to  enthusiastic 
[68J 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

participation.  They  teach  also  courage,  self- 
control,  and  loyalty,  and  are  most  important 
helps  in  the  development  of  a  strong  character. 
They  must  not  be  made  the  chief  interest  in 
college,  but  should  be  wisely  subordinated  to 
the  main  purpose  of  college  life.  Under  the 
direction  of  a  competent  physical  adviser,  a 
student  should  select  those  forms  of  indoor  and 
outdoor  exercise  which  are  likely  to  contribute 
most  toward  his  physical  development  and  the 
prolongation  of  an  active  life.  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible for  a  young  man  who  is  too  independent 
to  receive  advice  to  take  exercises  in  the  gym- 
nasium or  on  the  athletic  field  which  may  do 
him  great  harm. 

In  case  you  seem  to  have  the  necessary  physi- 
cal qualifications,  you  may  be  asked  to  try  for 
one  or  more  of  the  athletic  teams.  If  your 
body  stands  the  test  of  a  thorough  physical 
examination,  and  if  you  are  well  up  in  your 
studies,  it  may  not  be  unwise  to  make  the  trial. 
If,  after  long  periods  of  training,  you  finally 
succeed,  you  will  have  to  sacrifice  much ;  yet,  if 
you  can  meet  the  requirements  without  neglect- 
ing your  studies,  the  strict  discipline  to  which 
you  will  have  to  submit  will  be  worth  all  that  it 
costs.  But  unless  you  are  able  and  willing  to 
maintain  a  good  rank  in  scholarship  and  to 
[64] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

keep  in  strict  training,  you  have  no  right  to 
compete  for  a  place  on  an  intercollegiate  team. 
You  will  prove  false  to  the  captain  and  the 
coaches,  as  well  as  to  the  college,  if  any  defi- 
ciency for  which  you  alone  are  responsible  pre- 
vents your  playing  after  so  much  time  and 
effort  have  been  spent  in  preparing  you  for  the 
final  contest.  If  you  ever  have  the  honor  to 
represent  your  college  in  a  championship  game 
or  race,  you  will  need  all  the  strength  and 
endurance  you  have  been  able  to  store  up. 
Playing  in  a  hotly  contested  football  game,  or 
pulling  in  the  last  half  of  a  close  race,  is  about 
the  furthest  thing  in  the  world  from  recreation. 
I  believe  in  college  athletics  when  rightly 
managed,  and  do  not  see  how  any  one  who  has 
watched  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in 
the  manners  and  morals  of  students  since  the 
introduction  of  athletic  sports  could  be  willing 
to  give  them  up  and  go  back  to  things  as  they 
were.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  less  study 
in  college  on  account  of  athletics.  The  time 
that  was  formerly  idled  away,  and  the  animal 
spirits  that  were  vented  in  destruction  of  prop- 
erty or  in  dissipation,  are  now  devoted  to  ath- 
letic sports.  But  it  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  the  intense  interest  of  the  public  in  inter- 
collegiate contests  has  given  such  contests 
[65] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

a  greatly  exaggerated  importance;  and  if  the 
interest  of  students  in  college  athletics  could 
be  maintained  without  them,  it  would  perhaps 
be  better  if  intercollegiate  contests  were  given 
up.  It  is  not  putting  things  in  their  right 
proportion  when  the  name  of  a  college  athlete 
of  twenty  is  better  known  throughout  the  whole 
country  than  that  of  the  head  of  the  institution 
in  which  he  is  a  student,  or  of  any  man  in 
public  life  except  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

Both  in  the  general  management  of  athletic 
sports  and  in  the  actual  contests  on  the  field 
and  water,  all  will  agree  that  every  participant 
should  on  all  occasions  be  a  gentleman  and  show 
courteous  and  generous  treatment  toward  his 
rival.  While  it  is  expected  that  both  sides  will 
"play  the  game  for  all  it  is  worth,"  the  aim  is 
of  course  to  win  only  by  fair  means.  The  col- 
lege encourages  athletic  sports  for  the  exercise 
and  training  which  they  require,  and  not  in 
order  to  gain  a  victory  over  some  rival  insti- 
tution. It  is  worth  something  to  win, — no  one 
will  deny  that;  but  it  is  worth  more  to  play  a 
clean,  aggressive,  manly  game.  It  is  worth 
more  to  learn  to  bear  up  bravely  under  an 
honorable  defeat  than  it  is  to  win.  If  defeat 
comes,  take  it  like  men,  and  give  generous 
[66] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

praise  to  the  victorious  rival.  In  the  inter- 
collegiate contests  forty  years  ago,  the  losers 
often  tried  to  show  that  they  deserved  to  win. 
If  the  contest  was  on  the  water,  they  had  been 
fouled  or  had  broken  an  oar;  sometimes  they 
challenged  the  victorious  crew  to  row  the  race 
over  again  on  the  following  day,  well  aware 
that  no  attention  would  be  given  to  such  a  chal- 
lenge. If  the  contest  was  in  baseball,  the 
umpire  was  unfair  or  the  field  poor.  One  grat- 
ifying result  of  several  decades  of  college  ath- 
letics is  the  commendable  spirit  now  generally 
shown  in  defeat.  Today  the  defeated  side  is 
expected  to  accept  the  result  without  question, 
and  to  admit  generously  that  the  best  team 
has  won.  It  is  hard  to  do  this,  but  it  is  manly. 
To  attempt  any  other  explanation,  when  the 
contest  has  been  fairly  decided  against  you,  is 
to  act  like  children.  The  public  generally  has 
no  sympathy  whatever  with  the  attempt  to  win 
by  disconcerting  the  opposing  team.  The  aim 
should  be  to  win  by  playing  a  good  game,  not 
by  making  the  other  side  play  poorly.  All  con- 
centrated efforts,  whether  by  the  team  or  by 
its  supporters,  designed  to  "rattle"  the  players 
on  the  other  side  are  unworthy  of  college  men, 
and  are  generally  displeasing  to  the  spectators 
on  both  sides.  Any  close  contest  will  be  hard- 
[67] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

fought,  but  it  must  not  arouse  the  spirit  of 
anger  or  revenge.  One  of  the  claims  for  ath- 
letic sports  is  that  they  train  men  to  self- 
control  under  the  strongest  provocation. 

For  those  who  have  not  the  physical  ability 
or  the  ambition  to  make  the  university  team  in 
any  of  the  major  or  minor  sports,  there  ought 
to  be  in  the  colleges,  as  there  is  in  many  of  the 
best  schools,  opportunity  to  engage  in  the  same 
sports  solely  for  exercise  and  recreation.  Col- 
lege athletics  are  rightly  criticized  because  they 
offer  their  advantages  to  the  strong  only,  and 
do  little  for  the  average  student.  Gymnasiums 
and  athletic  fields  ought  to  be  administered  for 
the  use  of  those  who  need  them,  as  well  as  for 
the  expert  athlete  and  gymnast.  Athletic  and 
gymnastic  contests  between  departments,  or 
classes,  or  dormitories,  or  scholarship  divisions, 
are  to  be  heartily  encouraged.  Not  much  good 
comes  from  obliging  men  to  take  exercise  that 
they  do  not  like.  Whether  of  simian  descent 
or  not,  man  seems  to  be  by  nature  a  lazy 
animal,  in  whose  view  bodily  exercise  profiteth 
little.  But  it  would  seem  that,  amid  all  the 
various  sports  now  common,  if  the  opportunity 
were  offered,  any  young  man  might  find  at 
least  one  in  which  he  could  engage  with  enthu- 
siasm and  profit. 

r68] 


HEALTH,  RECREATION,  EXERCISE 

For  the  general  purpose  of  recreation  and 
exercise,  there  is  nothing  better  for  the  average 
student  than  a  brisk  walk  in  the  bracing  air 
among  the  hills  or  by  the  seashore,  with  pleas- 
ant companions.  If  you  go  alone,  the  thoughts 
that  trouble  you  at  other  times  will  trouble 
you  then.  Have  something  interesting  to  see, 
talk  about  your  plans  for  life,  and  avoid  dis- 
cussion of  subjects  on  which  you  disagree. 
Cast  away  care  and  go  simply  to  have  a  good 
time. 

An  experience  of  over  forty  years  has  made 
me  a  firm  believer  in  light  gymnastics  for  a 
busy  man,  or  for  one  who  cannot  take  more 
vigorous  exercise.  I  began  life  with  a  weak 
constitution,  and  at  the  time  of  graduation 
from  college  had  no  expectation  of  living  to  be 
an  old  man.  Charles  S.  Royse,  a  well-known 
teacher  of  gymnastics,  my  colleague  at  the 
Chickering  Institute,  with  sympathetic  interest, 
taught  me  such  exercises  as  one  could  conven- 
iently take  in  his  room  each  day.  His  instruc- 
tions and  advice  I  have  followed  with  great 
advantage.  This  practice,  with  prudent  habits 
and  a  fondness  for  outdoor  life,  enabled  me  to 
continue  active  service  without  interruption  up 
to  the  age  of  seventy.  Such  exercises,  if  taken 
regularly,  consume  little  time,  while,  by  keeping 
[69] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

one  in  a  condition  to  do  better  work,  they  in 
effect  add  to  the  working  time  of  each  day  and 
actually  lengthen  the  working  period  of  life. 


[70] 


IV 

SELF-DISCIPLINE 


^quam  memento  rebus  in  arduis 
servare  mentem. 

— Horace. 

He  that  wrestles  with  us  strengthens  our  nerves  and 
sharpens  our  skilL    Our  antagonist  is  our  helper. 

— Burke. 

Decide  not  rashly;  the  decision  made 
Can  never  be  recalled.    The  gods  implore  not. 
Plead  not,  solicit  not;  they  only  offer 
Choice  and  occasion,  which,  once  being  past. 
Return  no  more. 

— Longfellow. 

For  gold  is  tried  in  the  fire,  and  acceptable  men  in  the 
furnace  of  adversity. — Ecclesiasticus. 

If  thou  faint  in  the  day  of  adversity,  thy  strength  is 
small. — Proverbs. 

Work  on,  and  be  not  disheartened 

By  the  tasks  that  come  with  each  day. 

For  failures  but  make  us  the  stronger 
To  conquer  what  hinders  our  way. 

— Mary  B.  Ehrmann. 

Instruction  does  not  prevent  waste  of  time  or  mis- 
takes, and  mistakes  themselves  are  often  the  best  teach- 
ers of  all. — Froude. 

Life  is  not  so  short  but  that  there  is  always  time 
enough   for  courtesy. — Emerson. 

Use  doth  breed  a  habit  in  a  man. — Shakespeare. 


IV 
SELF-DISCIPLINE 

If  one  is  ambitious  to  make  the  most  of  his 
opportunities,  both  in  college  and  in  the  after 
years,  he  must  be  systematic  about  his  daily 
tasks.  Working  according  to  a  fixed  plan  has 
been  well  compared  to  skillful  packing  of 
articles  in  a  trunk.  The  systematic  arrange- 
ment enables  you  to  put  a  great  amount  in  a 
small  space.  If  you  have  no  assignment  of 
duties  to  the  different  parts  of  the  day,  much 
of  your  day  will  run  to  waste;  but  if  the  day 
is  divided  according  to  the  work  that  must  be 
done,  you  will  do  one  thing  at  a  time  and  each 
in  its  order,  and  thus  be  ready  to  meet  your 
appointments.  If  you  are  systematic,  you  will 
know  where  to  look  for  a  thing  when  you  want 
it.  Half  of  the  time  of  some  men  is  spent  in 
looking  for  what  they  have  mislaid,  or  in  doing 
over  what  ought  to  have  been  done  at  first  once 
for  all. 

It  is  easy  to  become  systematic  in  college, 

since  so  many  of  your  duties  are  fixed  for  you 

and  the  time  definitely  settled  when  they  must 

be  met.     Under  the  old  system,  when  all  the 

[78] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

students  in  a  class  had  the  same  exercises,  even 
the  hours  for  study  were  arranged,  and  a  period 
for  preparation  was  allowed  before  each  recita- 
tion or  lecture.  Now  the  day's  exercises  may 
follow  one  another  closely,  with  no  interval 
between  for  preparation.  This  is  less  con- 
venient, but  it  is  better  for  you  to  learn  to 
plan  your  own  work  a  day  or  more  in  advance, 
if  necessary,  than  to  have  the  periods  for  study 
marked  out  for  you  by  college  authority. 

Most  of  us  seldom  accomplish  much  in  the 
long  vacation.  We  go  home  or  to  the  moun- 
tains or  to  the  seashore  for  the  summer,  with 
the  intention  of  doing  a  good  amount  of  work ; 
and,  if  health  does  not  forbid,  there  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not.  Three  months  of  mere 
recreation  are  more  likely  to  unfit  one  for  the 
duties  of  the  following  year  than  to  prepare 
him  for  them.  Every  student  knows  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  to  make  the  mind  work  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  year.  But  the  long  vacation  days 
are  mainly  wasted  because  of  our  irregular  and 
unsystematic  manner  of  life.  Two  fixed  hours 
each  day  spent  in  thorough  study  would  yield 
far  better  results  than  we  now  get  from  our 
aimless  attempts  running  through  the  greater 
part  of  the  summer,  and  the  keen  intellectual 
effort  would  add  greatly  to  the  enjoyment  of 
[74] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

the  whole  period.  Moreover,  a  man  takes  great 
satisfaction  in  working  under  the  restraint  of 
a  plan  which  he  has  marked  out  for  himself. 
The  day  spent  without  a  purpose  is  the  most 
unsatisfactory  of  all. 

You  will  of  course  try  for  many  things  in 
college  that  you  do  not  get.  The  great 
majority  of  a  class  must  fail  in  their  efforts 
to  win  the  positions  which  they  are  ambitious 
to  attain.  This  is  especially  so  in  a  large  col- 
lege. The  positions  are  few,  and  the  candi- 
dates many.  Failure  ought  not  to  be  followed 
by  discouragement,  but  by  greater  effort  to 
succeed  in  the  next  attempt.  It  is  failure  that 
stimulates  us  to  our  highest  endeavors.  There 
is  nothing  that  will  so  arouse  an  earnest  man  as 
the  sting  of  defeat.  Suppose  that  you  win 
nothing  in  all  your  competitions.  If  you  make 
a  worthy  fight,  the  defeat  is  honorable,  and 
there  is  really  no  loss.  The  great  object  is 
gained  if  the  stimulus  was  sufficient  to  urge 
you  to  do  your  best.  Suppose  you  fail  alto- 
gether of  social  recognition,  and  have  no 
opportunity  to  know  by  personal  experience 
what  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages 
of  fraternity  life.  Is  it  not  a  great  deal 
better  to  be  worthy  of  such  recognition  and 
not  get  it,  than  to  get  it  and  not  be  worthy 
[75] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

of  it?  Strive  to  be  worthy  rather  than  to  seem 
so.  If  disappointment  comes,  do  not  forget 
that  the  object  of  all  the  experience  in  college 
is  to  train  you  for  the  wider  experience  of  life. 
A  man  who  has  been  defeated  in  every  college 
contest,  or  has  failed  to  get  the  social  honors 
which  he  coveted,  may  go  out,  and  ought  to 
go  out,  with  a  determination  to  win  in  his  pro- 
fession, which  otherwise  he  would  never  have 
had;  and  the  defeats  that  come  then  he  will 
know  better  how  to  turn  into  victories.  An 
academical  training  would  do  far  too  little  for 
a  man  if  he  could  win  everything  for  which  he 
tries.  No  such  experience  comes  in  after  life 
to  a  man  who  is  truly  ambitious.  If  he  aims 
at  the  highest  ultimate  success  possible  for  him, 
he  must  be  ready  to  welcome  failure  and  disap- 
pointment in  the  earlier  years,  and  must  rise 
from  the  inspiration  gained  from  defeat. 

No  one  doubts  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment proverb :  "He  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  bet- 
ter than  he  that  taketh  a  city."  We  excuse 
angry  words  in  children  and  in  uncultured  men, 
but  when  an  educated  man  loses  his  temper  he 
leaves  an  unfavorable  impression  that  is  not 
easily  effaced.  When  he  has  had  time  to  cool, 
he  is  himself  immediately  conscious  of  a  loss  of 
self-respect,  and  is  well  aware  that  he  has  lost 
[76] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

the  respect  of  other  men.  There  is  something 
very  humiliating  in  giving  way  to  anger;  one 
says  and  does  such  foolish  things.  We  forget 
almost  all  the  other  follies  of  our  early  com- 
panions and  classmates,  but  the  angry  words 
by  which  one  has  sometimes  revealed  the  meaner 
side  of  his  nature  we  may  forgive,  but  we  do 
not  forget.  Some  regrettable  displays  of  tem- 
per might  be  avoided  by  following  the  old  rule, 
ascribed  to  Thomas  Jefferson :  "If  angry,  count 
ten  before  you  speak;  if  very  angry,  count 
a  hundred."  If  one  can  check  the  explosion 
long  enough  to  realize  what  a  foolish  thing  he 
is  about  to  do,  he  will  not  do  it. 

If  you  have  injured  another  by  word  or  act, 
whether  deliberately  or  under  the  influence  of 
sudden  anger,  the  only  right  thing  to  do  is  to 
acknowledge  it  frankly  and  make  all  possible 
reparation.  This  is  far  more  important  for  you 
than  for  the  person  you  have  injured.  If  you 
let  it  go  by  unatoned  for,  he  may  possibly  for- 
get the  injury,  but  the  unkind  act  will  not  be 
effaced  from  your  own  memory.  The  con- 
sciousness of  having  done  wrong  often  hardens 
one's  heart  toward  the  man  whom  he  has 
wronged.  Proprium  humani  ingenii  est  odisse 
quern  laseris.  It  is  generally  the  one  who  has 
done  the  wrong  who  obstinately  refuses  offers 
[77] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

of  reconciliation,  and  not  the  one  who  has 
suffered. 

I  once  had  a  friend  who  would  have  been  a 
universal  favorite  but  for  these  two  serious 
faults.  He  was  one  of  the  most  kind-hearted 
men  I  ever  knew;  hardly  a  day  passed  when  he 
did  not  do  something  to  lighten  others'  burdens. 
But  when  under  the  influence  of  uncontrollable 
anger,  which  was  not  infrequent,  he  would  say 
unkind  and  cruel  things  to  those  who  happened 
to  differ  from  him.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  he  was 
never  known  to  apologize  for  his  cruel  words. 
Even  his  harsh  speeches  could  have  been  for- 
given if  he  had  expressed  to  those  whose  feel- 
ings he  had  injured  the  sorrow  which  he  must 
have  felt.  I  often  call  to  mind,  in  contrast,  the 
loving  act  of  a  classmate  who,  on  a  cold  winter 
night,  on  Andover  Hill,  rose  from  the  firelight 
and  crossed  the  campus  that  he  might  apolo- 
gize to  a  comrade  whose  feelings  he  feared  that 
he  had  hurt  by  a  thoughtless  remark  during  the 
day,  but  which,  as  it  proved,  his  comrade  had 
not  even  noticed. 

Failure  to  show  appreciation  for  favors  done 
is  a  common  fault  of  youth,  which  the  expe- 
rience of  maturer  years  often  corrects.  It  arises 
sometimes  from  the  erroneous  feeling  that  the 
favor  received  is  something  to  which  you  have 
[78] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

a  right,  and  that  no  obligation  is  due  on  your 
part,  as,  for  example,  in  the  acceptance  of  tui- 
tion scholarships  or  loans.  It  is  no  excuse  to 
say  that  your  benefactor  knows  that  you  appre- 
ciate his  kindness  and  that  it  is  therefore  unnec- 
essary for  you  to  tell  him  so ;  or  that  you  have 
much  gratitude  but  cannot  express  it.  I  doubt 
if  we  ever  have  more  real  gratitude  than  we  are 
willing  to  make  the  effort  to  show.  There  have 
been  students  under  financial  embarrassment 
who  have  received  gifts  of  money  from  class- 
mates or  instructors  without  so  much  as  a  word 
of  thanks.  We  call  them  very  ungrateful,  and 
so  they  are.  But  how  many  of  us  who  have 
been  kept  in  college  by  scholarships  or  fellow- 
ships have  ever  written  letters  of  appreciation 
to  the  persons  who  gave  them?  When  the 
founder  of  a  large  annual,  scholarship,  which 
had  already  been  awarded  in  twenty  successive 
classes,  was  thanked  by  the  person  to  whom  it 
had  been  assigned  for  the  twenty-first  year,  he 
said,  somewhat  regretfully,  that  this  was  the 
first  word  of  appreciation  of  his  gift  that  he 
had  ever  received  from  a  student.  I  fear  that 
many  other  donors  of  scholarships  could  say 
as  much,  or  more. 

I  know  by  experience  that  hardly  one-half  of 
those  who  write  to  a  college  officer  for  recom- 
[79] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

mendations,  or  for  information  or  advice,  even 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  his  reply.  Thank- 
ing your  correspondent  in  advance  may  save  a 
little  time,  but  it  is  bad  practice,  if  that  is  all 
the  thanks  you  give  him.  There  is  no  valid 
excuse  for  failure  to  write  a  courteous  note  of 
acknowledgment  for  any  favor  received.  I  have 
noticed  that  the  correspondent  most  likely  to 
fail  to  thank  you  for  services  done  him  is  the 
one  who  urges  you  to  answer  his  letter  without 
delay,  as  he  must  have  the  reply  at  once.  He 
has  himself  postponed  writing  till  the  latest 
possible  moment,  and  now  expects  you  to  has- 
ten in  order  to  make  up  for  his  slackness. 

One  of  the  worst  enemies  of  success  is  indo- 
lence. "He  that  drives  away  time  spurs  a  fast 
horse."  The  idea  that  enjoyment  comes  from 
having  Httle  or  nothing  to  do,  is  fascinating 
but  not  true.  It  is  even  better  to  spend  all 
one's  time  in  some  healthy  recreation  than  to 
be  idle.  The  surest  way  to  get  a  diseased  mind 
is  through  idleness.  The  man  with  nothing  to 
do  is  never  satisfied  with  himself.  He  is  the 
one  to  whom  life  becomes  a  burden,  while  he 
himself  also  is  a  burden  on  the  community.  If 
Satan  does  not  find  some  mischief  for  his  hands 
to  do,  he  will  be  a  great  consumer  of  other  men's 
time  and  will  live  upon  what  they  produce. 
[80] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

We  cannot  be  too  much  in  earnest  to  free 
ourselves  from  personal  traits  that  betray  inti- 
macy with  bad  associates  or  lack  of  early  home 
training.  Men  whose  business  it  is  to  learn 
just  what  we  are  (prospective  employers,  for 
example)  will  be  taking  our  measure  when  we 
think  we  are  not  under  observation,  and  will 
be  greatly  influenced  by  little  things.  A  Sen- 
ior of  creditable  scholarship  lost  a  good  place 
in  which  I  expected  to  locate  him,  because  he 
tipped  his  chair  back  against  the  wall  and  used 
a  toothpick  during  his  entire  interview  with  the 
principal  who  had  called  on  him  at  his  room 
fully  intending  to  engage  him.  When  talking 
with  you,  a  nervous  man — and  most  Americans 
are  nervous — keeps  his  hands  or  fingers  in  con- 
stant motion.  So  often  does  an  inexperienced 
public  speaker.  Such  awkwardness  prevents 
him  from  giving  his  whole  thought  to  his  sub- 
ject and  takes  away  the  attention  of  the  hearer, 
who  watches  his  eccentricities  and  pays  less  heed 
to  what  he  says.  Many  of  us  have  peculiarities 
of  manner  which  annoy  our  friends,  and  for 
which  they  sometimes  need  to  make  apology 
on  our  behalf.  Some  seem  to  be  peculiar  from 
choice.  It  is  well  to  try  to  be  like  other  people. 
There  is  no  need  of  making  any  effort  to  be 
singular;  if  we  get  rid  of  all  the  peculiarities 
[81] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

of  which  we  are  aware,  there  may  still  be  too 
many  left. 

The  man  who  thinks  before  he  speaks  gets  a 
reputation  for  wisdom,  sometimes  beyond  what 
he  really  deserves;  but  the  word  of  the  youth 
who  expresses  positive  opinions  on  every  sub- 
ject which  comes  up  carries  no  weight,  even 
when  he  happens  to  be  right,  because  he  is  so 
often  wrong  and  is  usually  ill-mannered.  In  the 
class-room,  as  well  as  in  private  conversation, 
it  is  best  to  be  positive  only  about  things  of 
which  one  is  reasonably  sure.  No  one  covets 
the  reputation  of  being  a  bluffer,  or  of  coming 
to  his  conclusions  by  guess-work.  Do  not  be 
afraid  to  say  you  do  not  know;  it  is  often  a 
mark  of  wisdom. 

Do  not  underestimate  the  value  of  regularity. 
Meet  every  appointment  promptly,  whether  it 
be  with  the  Faculty  or  with  your  classmates. 
The  student  who  aims  to  be  absent  from  class- 
room exercises  as  often  as  he  can,  and  to  do  as 
little  work  in  his  studies  as  is  possible  without 
being  dropped,  thinks  that  he  is  cheating  the 
Faculty;  but  when  a  young  man  pays  to  the 
college  treasurer  a  tuition  fee  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  per  year  for  the  privilege  of 
attending  recitations  and  lectures,  by  what  pro- 
cess of  reasoning  does  he  discover  that  the  more 
[82] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

absences  he  can  take  from  these  exercises  with- 
out being  dismissed,  the  more  he  gets  out  of  the 
college?  Or,  when  it  costs  him  thirty  dollars 
a  year  to  take  a  course,  on  what  ground  does 
he  conclude  that  it  is  sheer  loss  if  by  poor  cal- 
culation he  gets  a  mark  in  the  course  a  few 
points  higher  than  he  needs  in  order  to  pass  it? 
Be  not  unwilling  to  acknowledge  mistakes. 
To  assume  the  responsibility  for  what  you  have 
done,  or  have  failed  to  do,  and  to  apologize 
when  an  apology  is  necessary,  is  characteristic 
of  the  highest  type  of  a  gentleman.  Many, 
perhaps  most  of  us,  are  more  anxious  to  con- 
ceal our  mistakes  or  to  show  that  we  are  right, 
than  to  profit  by  the  experience.  I  remember 
well  two  of  my  early  instructors,  one  of  whom 
would  never  admit  that  he  had  made  an  error, 
though  he  did  make  many.  The  other  always 
cheerfully  accepted  a  correction  when  he  was 
wrong,  and  took  special  pains  to  correct  his 
error  later  in  the  presence  of  the  class.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  say  that  the  class  had  great 
confidence  in  the  latter  instructor,  whose  pur- 
pose was  plainly  to  get  at  the  truth,  and  very 
little  in  the  former,  whose  aim  was  to  justify 
his  own  statements,  whether  they  were  right  or 
wrong.  President  Roosevelt  says:  "The  only 
[88] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

man  who  makes  no  mistakes  is  the  man  who 
never  does  anything." 

Make  it  a  rule  to  finish  what  you  begin. 
Even  though  the  object  to  be  accomplished 
proves  to  be  not  worth  the  effort,  it  is  far  bet- 
ter, in  your  college  days  at  least,  to  finish  it 
and  finish  it  well,  for  the  sake  of  the  discipline. 
You  will  learn  to  plan  more  carefully  before 
taking  up  another  task.  If  you  have  made  a 
serious  promise,  do  not  fail  to  keep  it.  When 
you  have  selected  a  course  of  study  that  proves 
undesirable,  do  not  ask  leave  to  change  it,  but 
continue  it  to  the  end.  The  experience  will 
teach  you  that  you  must  not  sign  your  name 
thoughtlessly  to  an  agreement  that  you  do  not 
intend  to  keep.  The  men  who  fail  to  accom- 
plish what  they  design  to  do,  and  are  able  to 
do,  are  the  ones  who  lack  the  persistency  to 
stick  to  an  undertaking  till  it  is  completed. 
It  is  persistency  that  wins.  "Unstable  as 
water,  thou  shalt  not  excel." 

From  the  beginning  of  your  college  days, 
you  have  to  make  many  important  decisions, 
some  of  which  will  affect  your  whole  life.  In 
making  them,  you  must  have  a  mind  of  your 
own.  It  is  wise  to  get  all  the  advice  you  can, 
but  no  one  else  can  decide  your  questions  for 
you.  The  important  thing  is  to  plan  so  deliber- 
[84] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

ately  that  the  decision  will  be  final.  After  a 
decision  has  been  definitely  made,  a  reaction 
regularly  follows,  and  all  the  arguments 
against  the  plan  you  have  adopted  come  up  to 
convince  you  that  you  have  decided  wrongly. 
This  is  the  weakness  of  human  nature.  Do  not 
give  such  thoughts  a  place  in  your  mind. 
Later,  when  you  meet  with  difficulties  and  hard- 
ships that  you  did  not  foresee,  hesitate  long 
before  allowing  them  to  weaken  your  determina- 
tion to  follow  the  course  which  you  have  delib- 
erately chosen.  If  another  man's  calling  seems 
to  you  better  than  the  one  which  you  have 
selected,  it  is  generally  because  you  know  all  the 
unpleasant  things  in  your  own  and  see  only 
those  that  are  pleasant  in  his.  You  see  his  life 
only  on  the  outside. 

A  habit  is  formed  by  doing  over  and  over 
again  the  same  act.  This  act  may  be  involun- 
tary, and  sometimes  we  discover  that  we  are 
under  the  control  of  a  habit  formed  quite 
unconsciously.  Occasional  good  acts,  though 
commendable  in  themselves,  do  not  indicate 
that  we  are  going  forward  in  the  right  direc- 
tion; that  is  revealed  only  when  the  same 
actions  become  habitual.  Grood  habits  are  a 
sort  of  balance-wheel  in  one's  life.  They  keep 
one  going  steadily  forward,  doing  his  work, 
[85] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

Kttle  influenced  by  things  that  would  hinder 
his  progress.  We  are  all  creatures  of  habit, 
and  we  are  and  forever  shall  be  what  our  habits 
make  us.  Habit  has  been  called  second  nature, 
but  its  power  seems  sometimes  even  stronger 
than  nature  itself.  When  good  habits  have 
become  thoroughly  established,  they  are  towers 
of  strength  that  are  hard  to  overthrow;  and 
when  one  tries  to  break  off  an  evil  habit  that 
has  been  long  indulged,  he  discovers  what  the 
Prophet  meant  when  he  wrote :  "Can  the  Ethio- 
pian change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots? 
Then  may  ye  also  do  good  who  are  accustomed 
to  do  evil."  Such  is  the  tendency  of  nature 
that  bad  habits  are  formed  without  effort,  while 
those  that  are  good  are  established  with  diffi- 
culty and  maintained  only  by  a  persistent 
struggle,  just  as  a  field  will  grow  weeds  luxuri- 
antly without  the  help  of  man,  but  the  best 
grain  only  by  constant  cultivation. 

The  problem  for  the  most  of  us  is,  how  to 
get  rid  of  habits  that  are  evil.  Good  resolu- 
tions cost  little,  and  are  generally  thought  to 
be  worth  about  what  they  cost.  There  is  noth- 
ing to  be  said  against  them,  when  they  are 
made  deliberately  and  in  thorough  earnestness ; 
but  they  are  rarely  made  with  any  determined 
purpose  to  put  them  into  effect.  One  should 
[86] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

get  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  habit  to  be 
overcome  is  not  necessary  to  his  enjoyment, 
and  that  he  will  be  better  off  without  it.  The 
determination  to  get  rid  of  it  must  take  pos- 
session of  the  mind,  and  must  enter  into  the 
plan  of  daily  life.  Most  resolutions  do  not  get 
below  the  surface,  and  have  therefore  no  last- 
ing control  over  the  conduct.  When  the  first 
temptation  comes,  we  think  with  Rip  Van 
Winkle,  "We'll  not  count  this  time";  and  there 
is  no  chance  of  a  victory  after  that.  I  remem- 
ber a  boy  in  the  Academy  who  kept  writing  in 
his  diary  the  resolve  to  give  up  the  use  of 
tobacco,  which  he  knew  was  injuring  his  health; 
but  he  came  suddenly  to  the  end  of  his  days 
when  the  habit  was  still  on  him,  because  he  never 
took  the  first  earnest  step  to  carry  out  his  reso- 
lution. An  old  farmer  of  my  acquaintance, 
speaking  of  an  indolent  and  shiftless  neighbor, 
said :  "For  ten  years  he  has  been  telling  us  that 
he  is  turning  over  a  new  leaf;  what  he  needs  is 
to  turn  over  a  new  leaf  and  keep  it  over."  When, 
under  the  influence  of  emotion,  one  resolves  to 
begin  anew  and  do  better,  he  can  easily  turn 
over  a  new  leaf;  but  it  is  far  from  easy  to  keep 
it  over.  There  is  only  one  way  to  make  sure 
that  it  will  not  turn  back  again,  and  that  is 
to  hold  it  down  till  the  new  position  becomes 
[87J 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

habitual;  and  even  then  it  needs  constant 
watching.  But  what  a  person  has  done  once 
he  can  more  easily  do  a  second  time;  and  when 
an  act  has  become  habitual,  he  may  continue 
to  do  with  positive  enjoyment  what  at  first  was 
difficult  or  distasteful.  I  have  often  quoted  as 
an  example  the  student  who,  after  a  year  of 
great  irregularity,  made  a  sudden  change 
which  I  little  expected,  and  attended  practi- 
cally every  college  exercise  for  the  remainder  of 
his  course.  He  told  me  afterward  that  he  soon 
found  it  easier  to  go  to  everything  than  to  be 
irregular. 

Any  effort  for  reformation  must  be  positive. 
If  the  mind  is  well  occupied  with  ennobling 
thoughts,  there  will  be  no  place  for  evil 
thoughts.  Not  many  bad  habits  have  ever  been 
broken  off  by  simply  resolving  to  give  them  up. 
A  good  habit  must  be  put  in  place  of  the  bad. 
If  one  is  indolent,  it  is  not  enough  to  resolve  not 
to  be  indolent;  he  must  inaugurate  the  habit 
of  industry  by  marking  out  his  work  and  ful- 
filling at  the  appointed  times  the  tasks  which 
he  has  set  for  himself.  The  story  is  familiar  to 
all,  of  the  working  man,  who,  in  order  to  keep 
his  resolution  to  give  up  drinking,  went  to  and 
from  his  work  every  day  by  a  longer  route  that 
would  not  lead  him  past  the  place  of  temptation. 
[88] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

An  evil  habit  grips  a  man  with  iron  force, 
though  he  will  not  believe  it  till  he  tries  to  break 
the  bonds.  The  habit  that  it  is  now  hard  to 
conquer  was  begun  by  a  single  act,  perhaps 
done  thoughtlessly,  perhaps  against  the  admo- 
nitions of  conscience  and  in  defiance  of  home 
training,  perhaps  to  be  thought  manly  and 
independent.  However  strongly  it  may  be 
entrenched,  it  can  be  overcome.  The  ambition 
to  make  the  most  of  one's  self,  in  order  to  honor 
one's  father  and  mother  or  one's  college,  or  to 
help  to  make  the  lot  of  humanity  better,  will 
give  one  strength  to  conquer  the  worst  habit, 
as  the  experience  of  many  young  men,  in  col- 
lege and  out  of  college,  has  shown. 

Profanity  is  an  inexcusable  and  useless  habit. 
In  no  case  does  it  make  one's  words  more  con- 
vincing. It  is  generally  employed  by  those  who 
do  not  take  the  trouble  or  do  not  have  the  abil- 
ity to  express  themselves  in  pure  and  forceful 
English.  It  is  no  longer  indulged  in  by  gentle- 
men, and  is  to  most  people  vulgar  and  repul- 
sive. It  is  the  mark  of  a  certain  kind  of  men- 
tal inferiority,  and  one  addicted  to  it  greatly 
lessens  his  influence  with  his  fellows  and  stands 
much  less  chance  of  securing  a  desirable  posi- 
tion or  of  gaining  promotion. 

Intemperance,  gambling,  and  unchastity  so 
[89] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

utterly  ruin  one's  chances  for  success  in  any 
line,  either  in  college  or  in  after  life,  that  the 
only  course  for  a  young  man  of  sense  and  ambi- 
tion is  to  keep  entirely  clear  of  them.  One  who 
ought  to  know  has  left  us  the  only  safe  rule 
to  follow  when  tempted  to  any  evil  path :  "Avoid 
it,  pass  not  by  it,  turn  from  it,  and  pass  away." 
You  will  be  a  better  man  for  making  Sunday 
a  day  of  rest,  a  day  for  public  worship,  and  for 
thought  of  the  family  at  home;  and  on  no 
account  can  you  afford  to  lose  the  special 
opportunity  which  this  day  affords  for  thor- 
ough acquaintance  with  your  classmates. 
Whatever  view  you  may  hold  regarding  the 
obligation  to  observe  Sunday  on  religious 
grounds,  you  should  habitually  abstain  from 
work  on  that  day  on  the  ground  of  health  and 
of  public  welfare.  "The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  I  believe 
that  in  the  end  one  will  accomplish  more  by 
working  only  six  days  in  the  week  than  he  would 
by  working  seven.  The  body  soon  breaks  down 
if  it  is  not  given  periods  of  rest  and  change. 
No  one  doubts  that  the  working  man  should 
have  his  Sundays  free  from  toil,  for  religious 
observance  and  for  wholesome  recreation,  or 
that  a  quiet  day  is  better  for  him  than  one  of 
excitement  and  disorder.  The  college  man 
[90] 


SELF-DISCIPLINE 

should  set  the  example  by  a  proper  observance 
of  Sunday  himself,  and  should  use  his  influence, 
publicly  and  privately,  that  the  same  may  be 
secured  and  guaranteed  to  others. 

If  a  young  man  enters  college  with  well- 
established  habits  of  industry,  honesty  and 
purity,  no  temptation  to  go  wrong  ought  to 
have  any  power  over  him.  If  he  is  known  to  his 
classmates  at  the  beginning  as  a  man  of  cor- 
rect habits,  they  will  expect  him  to  remain  so, 
and  he  will  escape  the  solicitation  to  evil  to 
which  the  irresolute  man,  who  has  no  mind  of 
his  own,  is  exposed. 

A  man  whose  health  is  sound,  whose  mind 
is  filled  with  good  thoughts,  and  whose  char- 
acter is  beyond  suspicion,  has  personal  pos- 
sessions that  have  actual  value.  Bodily  health 
is  mainly  the  result  of  intelligent  care;  mental 
health  is  the  natural  condition  of  a  well-occu- 
pied mind.  Trustworthy  character  is  not 
inherited,  though  many  ethical  traits  may  be, 
and  is  not  acquired  by  listening  to  discourses 
on  morality,  though  they  may  be  helpful,  but 
is  developed  by  long  practice  in  doing  thor- 
oughly and  honestly  our  daily  duties  while  try- 
ing to  live  a  correct  life. 


[91] 


V 

COURAGE  AND  HONOR 


I  hope  I  shall  always  possess  firmness  and  virtue 
enough  to  maintain  what  I  consider  the  most  invaluable 
of  all  titles, — the  character  of  an  honest  man. 

— George  Washington, 

When  wealth  is  lost,  nothing  is  lost; 
When  health  is  lost,  something  is  lost; 
When  character  is  lost,  all  is  lost. 

— Anonymous. 

No  circumstances  can  repair  a  defect  of  character. 

— Emerson. 

Many  men  build  as  cathedrals  were  built, — the  part 
nearest  the  ground  finished,  but  that  part  which  soars 
toward  heaven,  the  turrets  and  spires,  forever  incom- 
plete.— Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

Gentlemen  do  not  cheat,  nor  do  they  deceive  themselves 
as  to  what  cheating  is. — Walter  Camp. 

Few  persons  have  courage  enough  to  appear  as  good 
as  they  really  are. — **Guesses  at  Truth." 

There  ought  to  be  in  all  college  life  rigid,  unsympa- 
thetic honesty,  like  that  of  the  bank  or  the  counting- 
room.  The  perpetual  effort  after  personal  righteous- 
ness should  stand  as  an  abiding  expression  of  the  reli- 
gious life. — Charles  R.  Brown. 


V 

COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

There  is  no  influence  in  college  so  hard  to 
resist  as  public  sentiment.  When  this  is  right, 
as  it  is  on  most  subjects,  it  is  a  mighty  power 
for  good ;  when  it  stamps  with  its  approval  acts 
that  are  morally  wrong,  and  defends  them  on 
the  ground  of  custom,  good  men  ought  to  have 
the  courage  to  oppose  it  openly.  One  may  at 
first  be  deceived  in  regard  to  the  moral  stand- 
ard of  the  college,  and  beheve  that  it  is  repre- 
sented by  the  small  circle  in  which  he  moves. 
He  should  not  imagine  that  questionable  con- 
duct and  character  are  approved  by  the  college 
at  large  because  some  of  his  companions  openly 
show  their  approval.  Sometimes  a  few  men  in 
the  early  part  of  Freshman  year  put  them- 
selves forward  and  for  a  time  appear  to  their 
followers  to  set  the  standard  for  the  class. 
They  study  but  little,  pride  themselves  on  their 
skill  in  questionable  methods  and  their  knowl- 
edge of  shady  places.  If  they  are  able  to 
remain  in  college,  their  influence  will  be  short 
lived.     The  great  body  of  students  in  college 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

are  upright  and  honorable,  and  have  no  respect 
for  men  destitute  of  moral  principle. 

When  a  young  man  goes  wrong,  we  some- 
times hear  it  said  in  his  defence,  that  he  has 
been  influenced  by  unfavorable  circumstances. 
People  generally  understand  that  this  is  no 
defence,  but  only  a  poor  apology  for  the  feeble- 
ness of  his  character.  It  is  not  complimentary 
to  him  to  say  that  he  has  been  influenced  by 
unfavorable  circumstances.  What  can  life  be 
to  one  who  yields  to  every  influence  and  has  no 
moral  standard  of  his  own?  As  a  rule,  a  man 
who  cannot  resist  temptation  in  one  college,  or 
one  profession,  or  one  city,  would  not  in 
another.  In  any  other  situation  he  would  find 
the  surroundings  also  unfavorable  for  the  devel- 
opment of  his  character.  If  present  circum- 
stances are  not  favorable  to  him,  he  must  make 
them  so  by  some  change  in  himself.  The  ten- 
dency everywhere  is  for  a  good  man  to  grow 
better,  and  for  the  bad  man  to  grow  worse,  and 
it  does  not  so  much  matter  where  the  man  is. 
The  same  influences  help  the  one  and  hinder  the 
other.  If  a  man  is  ruining  his  health  by  glut- 
tony, he  will  not  be  benefited  by  merely  mak- 
ing a  change  of  climate,  and  one  cannot  change 
his  moral  nature  by  changing  his  residence.  If 
he  finds  present  circumstances  unfavorable,  let 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

him  get  a  settled  purpose  to  do  right,  and  he 
will  find  the  same  circumstances  helpful.  If  he 
has  bad  companions,  they  did  not  force  them- 
selves upon  him  without  his  consent ;  if  he  visits 
questionable  resorts,  he  does  not  go  except  by 
his  own  free  will ;  if  his  habits  are  bad,  they  were 
not  formed  against  his  protest,  and  he  certainly 
will  not  admit  that  he  cannot  change  them 
whenever  he  wishes. 

The  consciousness  of  a  weak  or  cowardly 
act  may  torture  a  person  for  years.  Some  are 
by  nature  resolute  and  fearless,  but  courage 
is  not  wholly  an  inborn  quality.  It  is  gained 
from  experience  in  the  presence  of  opposition 
or  of  danger.  Many  of  the  soldiers  who  fled 
in  the  panic  at  Bull  Run  became  seasoned  vet- 
erans before  the  war  was  over.  It  is  only  on 
the  courage  that  has  been  often  tested  that  one 
can  absolutely  rely.  It  takes  a  higher  kind  of 
courage  to  encounter  opposition  and  ridicule 
in  defence  of  the  truth,  than  to  meet  an  armed 
enemy.  The  excitement  of  the  occasion,  the 
co-operation  of  others,  the  fact  that  friends  are 
in  peril,  the  determination  to  avenge  an  insult 
or  injury,  either  personal  or  to  a  cause  which 
one  has  at  heart,  tend  to  make  a  man  fearless 
in  time  of  danger.  But  one  who  would  risk  his 
life  to  save  a  person  from  drowning  may  lack 
[97] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

the  moral  courage  to  stand  alone  in  a  company 
of  his  classmates  in  defence  of  what  he  knows 
to  be  right.  It  takes  moral  courage  to  do  right 
when  your  daily  associates  do  wrong,  to  live  up 
to  your  convictions  and  follow  the  teachings 
of  the  home  when  others  make  light  of  them, 
to  decline  to  assist  the  man  of  social  promi- 
nence when  he  asks  you  to  write  his  essay  for 
him,  to  be  a  companion  of  a  classmate  who  is 
unpopular,  to  keep  expenses  within  your  allow- 
ance and  risk  the  loss  of  social  standing.  The 
weak  man,  goes  with  the  crowd  and  does  what 
the  others  do,  not  bothering  himself  about 
moral  questions. 

It  calls  for  a  high  kind  of  courage  to  take  a 
stand  openly  against  evil  in  a  college  commun- 
ity, but  a  faint-hearted  man  can  be  strong  in 
his  opposition  against  either  good  or  evil  as 
long  as  his  identity  is  concealed.  College  senti- 
ment ought  not,  and  generally  does  not,  sanc- 
tion anonymous  publications  attacking  persons 
or  things  that  the  writers  dislike,  but  there  are 
some  whom  public  sentiment  does  not  reach. 
The  individual  attacked  by  an  anonymous 
critic  is  not  the  only  one  who  suffers.  If  the 
writer  of  the  article  escapes  suspicion  of  being 
the  author  of  it,  he  does  so  by  casting  that  sus- 
picion upon  other  people — other  members  of 
[98] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

his  class  perhaps,  or  of  his  society,  or  of  the  col- 
lege. If  there  is  ground  for  public  criticism  of 
individuals  or  of  an  institution,  the  criticism 
should  be  made  in  an  open  and  manly  way.  A 
man  with  no  courage  can  be  very  bold  in  mak- 
ing unjust  charges  in  print,  so  long  as  no  one 
else  knows  who  makes  them.  An  unsigned  com- 
munication, if  read  at  all,  generally  has  less 
influence  with  the  reader,  because  he  does  not 
know  the  author's  motive  in  making  it  and  sus- 
pects that  it  is  unfair  inasmuch  as  the  writer 
lacked  the  courage  to  make  his  attack  openly. 
Would  it  not  be  better  if  all  communications 
in  the  college  press  about  college  affairs  were 
given  over  the  names  of  their  authors?  If  an 
article  is  worth  printing,  the  writer  ought  to 
be  glad  to  acknowledge  the  authorship.  There 
will  be  no  danger  of  too  much  freedom  of  the 
college  press  when  the  contributors  assume  the 
responsibility  for  what  they  write. 

"Honesty  is  the  best  policy";  but  he  who 
has  no  higher  motive  for  square  dealing  has  a 
false  standard  and  may  be  dishonest  whenever 
that  becomes  good  policy,  or  whenever  he  is 
sure  of  escaping  detection.  Any  man  will 
speak  the  truth  when  he  thinks  it  for  his  inter- 
est to  do  so ;  an  honest  man  is  one  who  will  tell 
the  truth  no  matter  what  it  may  cost  him.  We 
[99] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

are  often  more  anxious  to  appear  honest  than 
to  be  so.  All  wish  to  be  thought  honest.  Let 
the  heart  be  right  and  the  conduct  will  not  be 
blameworthy.  We  ought  to  build  our  lives 
like  the  ancient  temples,  for  the  Deity  who  sees 
everywhere  and  not  alone  or  chiefly  for  the  eye 
of  man,  who  sees  only  the  outside.  He  who 
pretends  to  be  what  he  is  not,  is  a  hypocrite; 
so  also  is  the  man  who  will  urge  others  to  live 
up  to  the  standard  which  he  does  not  follow 
himself.  The  thoroughly  true  and  sincere  man 
is  the  one  to  win  our  affection  and  rule  our 
lives. 

When  a  child  has  done  wrong,  his  first 
thought  is  concealment  and  denial.  If  he  is  not 
corrected,  he  is  Hkely  to  become  habitually 
untruthful.  It  will  be  fortunate  for  him  if  he 
is  taught  early  that  it  is  wrong  to  cheat  and  lie ; 
later  he  will  learn  by  his  own  experience  also 
that  it  does  not  pay  in  the  end  to  do  either. 
There  is  no  place  for  a  liar  among  men  of  any 
race  or  class ;  confidence  is  everywhere  withheld 
from  one  who  has  been  proved  to  be  a  cheat.  I 
remember  a  young  man  who  lost  the  honor 
which  it  had  been  the  ambition  of  his  college 
life  to  gain,  because  he  told  a  lie  to  save  six 
cents.  He  deserved  to  lose  the  honor,  for  he 
showed  himself  unworthy  of  it ;  that  small  act, 
[100] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

which  he  thought  shrewd,  betrayed  his  real 
character.  A  college  student  whose  conduct 
leaves  room  for  doubt  about  his  honesty  has 
no  social  standing,  and  in  any  college  a  student 
who  is  known  to  steal  from  his  fellows  would 
be  forced  by  his  classmates  to  withdraw  from 
the  institution. 

It  is  hard  to  understand,  therefore,  how 
young  men  who  have  been  selected  to  be  trained 
in  our  educational  institutions  that  they  may 
become  public  servants  and  leaders,  and  whose 
standard  of  honor  is  so  high  when  dealing  with 
one  another,  can  ever  have  tolerated  the  belief 
that  dishonesty  in  dealing  with  the  Faculty  is 
not  a  serious  offence.  That  this  belief  has  been 
too  generally  held  is  shown,  if  in  no  other  way, 
by  the  numerous  efforts  among  the  students 
themselves  to  establish  a  so-called  honor  system, 
under  which  a  person  guarantees  to  be  honest 
when  he  has  been  put  on  his  honor.  Any  honor 
system  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  habitual  dis- 
honesty, but  it  is  not  creditable  to  student  life 
if  it  does  not  recognize  a  higher  motive.  We 
must  be  truthful  and  honest  because  it  would 
be  wrong  to  be  untruthful  and  dishonest.  One 
objection  to  an  honor  system,  as  often  advo- 
cated, is  that  it  seems  to  be  assumed  that  when 
the  student  has  not  been  put  on  his  honor,  he 
[101] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

does  not  feel  under  obligation  to  be  honest. 
When  you  sign  an  agreement  not  to  cheat  in 
an  examination  if  supervision  by  the  Faculty 
is  removed,  is  it  not  to  be  understood  that  you 
think  you  have  a  right  to  cheat,  if  you  can 
without  being  found  out,  when  a  supervisor  is 
present?  A  gentleman  is  always  on  his  honor. 
For  a  gentleman  there  is  only  one  standard  of 
honesty,  and  that  is  perfect  honesty,  always 
and  everywhere,  even  if  men  in  general  are  dis- 
honest. What  ground  is  there  for  the  position 
sometimes  taken,  that  a  student  is  justified  in 
cheating  in  his  examinations,  if  he  gets  a 
chance,  because  he  is  watched  by  his  instruc- 
tors? The  purpose  of  supervision  is  not  to 
detect  and  punish  wrongdoing,  but  to  guard 
against  the  temptation  to  do  wrong.  The  col- 
lege student  today  is  treated  as  a  man,  and  is 
subject  only  to  the  kind  of  supervision  which  a 
man  everywhere  ought  to  welcome.  It  is  not 
likely  that  he  will  ever  again  be  where  he  will 
be  watched  so  little.  When  I  go  to  the  polls  to 
vote,  the  supervisor  carefully  checks  my  name 
on  the  list,  because  the  State  fears  that  if  its 
citizens  are  not  watched,  some  of  them  may  vote 
more  than  once,  and  we  know  that  there  is 
ground  for  this  fear.  When  I  receive  pay- 
ment for  a  bill,  my  debtor  asks  me  to  give  him 
[102] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

a  receipt,  lest  I  demand  payment  a  second  time. 
If  I  overdraw  my  deposit  at  the  bank,  the  bank 
will  not  honor  my  check.  If  I  go  on  a  journey, 
the  conductor  will  not  take  my  word  that  I 
have  paid  my  fare,  but  demands  my  ticket  as 
evidence;  and  he  himself  is  obliged  to  punch 
the  ticket,  not  because  the  company  suspect  him 
of  dishonesty  (if  they  had  this  suspicion  they 
would  not  employ  him),  but  because  they  know 
that  it  is  not  wise  to  expose  even  the  most 
honest  man  in  their  employ  to  the  continual 
temptation  to  be  dishonest  without  adequate 
safeguards  to  protect  him.  The  United  States 
Government  will  not  forward  to  you  a  letter 
from  your  father  until  it  has  canceled  the 
stamp,  fearing  that  you  or  some  one  else  will 
use  the  stamp  again  if  it  is  not  defaced.  When 
a  bank  official  is  caught  in  stealing  from  the 
bank,  did  you  ever  know  him  to  attempt  to 
justify  his  crime  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
watched  by  the  bank  examiners?  The  watch- 
fulness of  the  examiners  is  his  protection.  If 
he  complains  of  them  at  all,  it  is  because  they 
did  not  watch  him  more.  There  are  citizens, 
we  know,  who  would  be  glad  if  supervision 
were  removed;  if  there  were  no  lists  of  voters 
at  the  elections;  if  the  banks  would  cash  their 
checks  without  regard  to  the  amount  of  their 
[103] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

deposits;  if  they  could  ride  on  the  train  with- 
out being  asked  to  show  their  tickets;  if  they 
could  hold  positions  of  trust  with  railways  and 
with  banks,  and  be  left  on  their  honor.  The 
good  citizen  does  not  object  to  supervision; 
and  why  should  he?  When  it  is  so  easy  for  a 
man  under  great  temptation  to  begin  the  ruin 
of  his  whole  career  by  one  false  step,  we  ought 
all  to  be  thankful  for  any  safeguards  that  help 
us  to  keep  from  evil;  and  the  evil,  remember, 
is  not  in  being  caught,  but  in  yielding  to  the 
temptation  to  be  dishonest. 

Even  if  the  majority  of  men  the  world  over 
were  unreliable  (as  they  are  not),  that  would 
be  no  reason  why  you  and  I  should  be.  The 
country  is  looking  for  men  who  can  be  trusted ; 
men  who  will  not  lie  for  their  own  profit,  who 
cannot  be  bribed  to  do  what  is  wrong.  It  has 
been  said  that  such  men  are  rare,  especially  in 
public  life.  If  that  is  so,  there  is  the  greater 
reason  why  the  record  of  college  men  should 
be  clean.  It  seems  pretty  certain  that  honest 
men  in  positions  of  trust  will  be  less  rare  in  the 
years  to  come.  It  is  getting  to  be  dangerous 
for  men  in  official  positions  to  be  dishonest. 
Recent  events  have  made  it  evident  that  the 
dishonest  public  servant  is  to  be  relegated  to 
private  life,  or  to  prison,  and  that  men  of 
[104] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

established  character  are  to  be  put  in  high 
positions.  But  it  is  not  true  that  men  gener- 
ally are  dishonest.  The  comparatively  few 
who  are  so  become  conspicuous  examples,  and 
we  sometimes  hastily  judge  all  by  the  excep- 
tions. If  it  were  not  for  the  well-nigh  univer- 
sal confidence  in  the  commercial  honesty  of 
mankind,  modem  business  on  its  present  scale 
would  be  impossible. 

Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  feeling  in 
colleges  many  years  ago,  it  is  no  longer  true 
that  a  student  can  be  untruthful  in  his  deal- 
ings with  college  authorities  without  losing  the 
esteem  of  those  for  whose  good  opinion  he 
ought  to  care.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  has 
ever  been  true  that  a  man  known  to  be  dis- 
honest in  college  has  had  in  after  life  the  full 
confidence  of  his  classmates,  or  that  he  would 
be  put  by  them  in  places  of  financial  responsi- 
bility. I  have  known  college  students  thor- 
oughly in  one  institution  for  forty  years,  and 
the  hundreds  of  them  who  are  in  high  places 
today  are  the  ones  who,  when  in  college,  left 
no  doubt  as  to  where  they  stood  on  questions 
that  involved  truth  and  honor. 

In  a  short  time,  school  and  college  days  will 
be  over,  and  you  may  be  seeking  a  position. 
Then  you  will  appreciate  the  value  of  a  good 
[105J 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

college  record.  If  you  are  an  applicant  for 
any  business  situation  which  is  worth  having, 
the  firm  will  not  consider  you  till  they  know 
what  you  have  done  and  what  you  have  stood 
for  in  college.  Most  of  all,  they  will  want 
evidence  regarding  your  character  and  habits. 
College  afi'ords  a  pretty  sure  test  of  a  young 
man's  character.  It  is  a  little  world  in  itself, 
presenting  in  miniature  the  same  ambitions, 
the  same  temptations,  and  the  same  disappoint- 
ments that  beset  us  in  the  great  world  outside. 
He  who  enters  here  is  wise  if  he  puts  himself 
in  the  way  of  influences  that  will  help  the 
development  of  a  manly  character.  It  is  not 
unnatural  for  a  young  man  in  his  strength, 
and  with  but  limited  knowledge  of  the  ways  of 
the  world,  to  feel  confident  of  his  abihty  to 
stand  firm  against  temptation.  It  is  true, 
also,  that  the  power  to  resist  evil  must  be 
mainly  in  one's  self,  and  that  no  external 
influences  can  develop  very  strong  character 
in  a  weak  man;  but  when  a  youth  goes  out 
from  home  and  school  to  enjoy  the  larger 
liberty  of  the  college,  he  needs  all  the  support 
he  can  get  from  Faculty  guidance,  from  the 
restraining  influences  of  former  associations, 
and  from  good  companionship.  To  become 
indifferent  to  the  messages  of  affection  and 
[106] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

devotion  that  come  from  the  fireside  where  one's 
childhood  has  been  spent,  or  from  the  school 
which  is  second  only  to  the  home,  and  to  follow 
after  companions  who  will  soon  count  as  zeros 
because  they  are  bold  only  in  things  that  are 
evil,  is  one  of  the  surest  ways  to  lose  everything 
in  college  that  is  worth  having. 

If  you  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  father 
and  mother  living,  let  one  who  lost  both  father 
and  mother  when  he  was  so  young  that  he  does 
not  remember  to  have  seen  either  of  them, 
advise  you  to  make  it  a  first  principle  to  keep 
always  on  terms  of  confidential  relationship 
with  them,  and  to  do  nothing  which  you  would 
not  gladly  let  them  know.  You  will  not 
always  be  able  to  go  to  them  as  you  can  now. 
For  your  own  sake,  as  well  as  theirs,  do  not 
willingly  cause  them  sorrow.  Remember  their 
solicitude  and  their  prayers  in  your  behalf,  the 
sacrifices  they  have  made  for  you  and  are  still 
making,  and  their  long-cherished  plans  to  give 
you  what  you  now  enjoy.  Their  hearts  are 
bound  up  in  you,  and  nothing  else  will  give 
them  so  great  joy  as  to  see  you  grow  to  fvdl 
manhood,  appreciative  of  what  they  have  done 
for  you  and  fulfilling  their  bright  hopes. 
Your  companionship  with  your  father  ought 
to  be  the  most  precious  of  your  life.  If  he  is 
[107] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

a  college  man,  he  will  live  over  his  college  life 
again  with  you.  By  and  by  you  will  learn  to 
appreciate  him  as  you  cannot  possibly  do  till 
you  yourself  take  up  the  tasks  of  a  mature 
man  and  get  some  idea  of  what  his  burdens 
have  been. 

With  all  the  disregard  and  neglect  of  church 
attendance,  there  is  more  practical  Chris- 
tianity in  America  today  than  there  was  a 
century  ago.  There  is  help  for  the  poor, 
sympathy  for  the  lonely  and  sorrowing,  care 
for  destitute  and  orphan  children,  hospitals 
for  the  sick,  homes  for  the  homeless  and  friend- 
less. In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, college  students  came  mostly  from  reli- 
gious famiUes,  and  yet  less  than  one  fourth 
of  an  entering  class,  on  the  average,  had  made 
a  profession  of  religion;  and  while  there  was 
willing  attendance  on  the  numerous  religious 
exercises,  the  college  atmosphere  was  unfavor- 
able to  personal  religion.  Now  a  large 
majority  of  each  entering  class  are  church 
members,  and  all  have  respect  and  admiration 
for  a  courageous,  religious  man.  A  good  pro- 
portion of  the  class  engage  in  some  active 
form  of  religious  and  charitable  work.  Hatred, 
revenge  and  jealousy,  that  formerly  were  not 
uncommon,  are  more  and  more  despised,  and 
[108  J 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

have  been  replaced  by  the  spirit  of  love  and 
helpfulness. 

Religion  is  essential  for  the  development  of 
a  well-rounded  man.  Thought  on  the  great 
themes  which  it  presents  helps  to  make  one 
strong  and  broad-minded.  It  gives  him  the 
best  motives  for  living,  helps  him  to  overcome 
his  faults  and  to  make  the  most  of  his  life. 
There  is  nothing  good  in  a  man  that  religion 
does  not  help  to  make  better.  If  it  is  of  the 
right  type,  it  will  stimulate  him  to  do  all  his 
work  better;  it  ought  to  make  him  a  better 
son,  a  better  friend,  a  better  student.  It  urges 
him  to  take  care  of  his  health,  as  well  as  his 
character.  It  calls  upon  him  to  do  his  daily 
tasks  well,  and  does  not  require,  and  ought 
not  to  allow,  him  to  neglect  these  even  to 
engage  in  religious  or  charitable  work.  The 
college  studies,  if  he  is  pursuing  them  from  the 
proper  motive,  are  the  first  Christian  work 
given  him  to  do.  Religious  work  done  by  those 
who  neglect  their  college  studies  is  generally 
not  done  effectively.  The  sincerely  religious 
man  is  "diligent  in  business,"  as  well  as  "fer- 
vent in  spirit."  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  try 
to  help  others  by  lowering  your  standard  of 
conduct  so  as  to  be  companionable  with  them, 
I  have  seen  that  tried  many  times,  but  never 
[109] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

with  success.  Your  influence  over  your  fellows 
will  depend  upon  the  correctness  and  reason- 
ableness of  your  own  life.  You  can  be  com- 
panionable with  any  classmate  if  you  are 
manly  and  sincere. 

I  do  not  see  how  any  one  can  feel  satisfied 
with  a  life  in  which  religion  has  no  part.  The 
Christian  religion  exactly  meets  man's  wants. 
It  comes  to  him  with  the  spirit  of  forgiveness 
and  the  love  of  a  divine  Father.  It  presents 
to  him  the  opportunity  to  have  a  share  in  the 
world's  regeneration,  the  greatest  work  in 
which  man  was  ever  engaged.  What  the  world 
needs  is  that  all  men  should  follow  the  example 
of  the  Master,  and  work  unselfishly  for  the 
common  welfare.  The  world  is  moving  in  that 
direction,  and  there  will  be  far  more  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ  on  earth  one  hundred  years 
hence  than  there  is  today.  When  you  assume 
the  duties  of  a  man  among  men,  and  take 
positions  of  responsibility,  where  everything 
depends  on  your  integrity  and  your  power  to 
resist  evil  influences,  you  will  feel  the  need  of 
the  support  which  religion  gives.  How  much 
more  you  will  do  in  the  world,  and  how  much 
more  satisfaction  you  will  take  in  your  work, 
if  your  motives  are  the  highest !  I  would  that 
every  young  man,  while  in  his  strength,  might 
[110] 


COURAGE  AND  HONOR 

know  the  joy  that  comes  from  working  in  har- 
mony with  the  Power  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness. 


[Ill] 


VI 

AMONG  CLASSMATES 


Nil  ego  contulerim  iucundo  sanus  amico. — Horace, 

A  slender  acquaintance  with  the  world  must  convince 
every  man  that  actions,  not  words,  are  the  true  criterion 
of  the  attachment  of  friends,  and  that  the  most  liberal 
professions  of  good- will  are  very  far  from  being  the 
surest  marks  of  it. — George  Washington. 

Friendship  is  an  order  of  nobility. — Emerson. 

The  mind  never  unbends  itself  so  agreeably  as  in  the 
conversation  of  a  well-chosen  friend. — Addison. 

That  best  portion  of  a  good  man's  life. 
His  little  nameless,  unremembered  acts 
Of  kindness  and  of  love. 

— Wordsworth. 

A  day  for  toil,  an  hour  for  sport. 
But  for  a  friend  is  life  too  short. 

— Emerson. 

A  man  that  hath  friends  must  show  himself  friendly. 

— Proverbs, 

Gravis  est  culpa  tacenda  loqui. — Ovid. 

A  moral,  sensible,  and  well-bred  man 
Will  not  affront  me;  and  no  other  can. 

— Oowper. 


VI 
AMONG  CLASSMATES 

Although  you  go  to  college  primarily  for 
the  intellectual  advantages  which  it  offers,  yet 
that  part  of  your  education  which  comes  from 
the  life  of  the  community  is  not  to  be  under- 
valued. Association  with  men  from  all  sections 
of  the  country,  and  from  foreign  countries, 
will  help  you  to  get  rid  of  narrowness  and 
provincialism;  and  the  awkwardness  and  angu- 
larity which  you  may  have  had  at  the  begin- 
ning will  be  gradually  worn  off  by  constant 
attrition.  Some  of  the  most  helpful  influences 
of  the  four  years  will  come  from  your  class- 
mates, with  whom  you  live  the  daily  life  amid 
the  old  traditions.  The  college  room,  the 
campus,  the  athletic  field,  the  dining  hall,  the 
chapel,  the  gymnasium,  the  college  publica- 
tions, the  religious  and  social  organizations, 
the  intercollegiate  contests  in  athletics  or 
debate,  do  as  much  for  the  development  of 
some  men  as  the  instruction  of  the  class-room. 
Without  the  intellectual  side,  the  social  life 
would  lose  its  charm ;  but  when  both  are  ration- 
[115] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

ally  blended,  they  make  an  ideal  college  life, 
which  is  one  of  the  choicest  privileges  to  which 
a  young  man  can  aspire. 

In  sizing  up  a  classmate,  the  first  question  a 
college  man  asks  is.  How  does  he  carry  himself 
toward  other  men?  Is  he  large-hearted,  a  man 
of  generous  impulses?  If  in  his  intercourse 
with  his  fellows  he  looks  out  for  himself  first, 
if  he  is  ungenerous  in  his  treatment  of  any  who 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  advancement,  if  he  is 
unwilling  to  sacrifice  his  own  interests  for  the 
good  of  the  whole,  if  he  is  ready  even  to  injure 
another's  chances  for  the  sake  of  helping  him- 
self;  if,  in  short,  he  uses  other  men  solely  for 
what  he  can  get  out  of  them,  he  will  in  the  end 
be  without  influence  and  will  have  no  real 
friends.  College  is  not  a  congenial  place  for 
a  man  whose  horizon  is  limited  by  his  own 
selfish  considerations.  On  the  other  hand,  true 
nobility  of  soul  will  atone  for  many  disagree- 
able personal  qualities,  and  even  for  some 
deficiencies  of  character.  Generous  treatment 
of  others  and  an  unselfish  disregard  of  one's 
own  comfort  will  give  any  young  man  a  warm 
place  in  the  hearts  of  his  classmates. 

A  college  student  cannot  long  pass  among 
his  classmates  for  what  he  is  not.  On  account 
of  school  or  family  prestige  or  other  favorable 
[116] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

circumstances,  he  may  have  during  the  first 
months  of  Freshman  year  a  special  advantage 
over  his  fellows  which  he  does  not  deserve;  but 
reputation  thus  gained  is  apt  to  be  short- 
lived. Some  of  those  who  pose  as  big  men  in 
Freshman  year  look  exceedingly  small  in 
Senior  year, — if,  indeed,  they  survive  till  that 
time.  Before  one  finishes  his  college  course, 
his  classmates  will  know  pretty  accurately  what 
sort  of  a  man  he  is.  It  is  possible  for  him  to 
deceive  the  Faculty,  and  he  may  deceive  his 
family,  but  he  will  not  deceive  his  classmates. 
Nowhere  does  a  man's  inner  life  lie  more  open 
to  his  companions.  If  he  is  brave,  generous, 
and  honorable,  his  classmates  will  know  it ;  and 
if  he  is  jealous  or  selfish  or  cowardly  or  impure, 
they  will  know  that.  In  later  years  a  man's 
classmates  will  remember  him  as  he  was  in  his 
Senior  year,  and  will  keep  the  estimate  of  him 
which  they  formed  at  that  period.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  one's  character  will  remain 
through  life  essentially  what  it  is  when  he 
leaves  college;  but  if  it  does  not,  the  reputa- 
tion with  which  he  goes  out  will  cling  to  him, 
and  if  he  becomes  afterwards  better  or  worse, 
it  will  not  be  easy  for  his  classmates  to  appre- 
ciate the  change. 

Sometimes  a  youth  on  entering  college  fool- 
[117] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

ishly  attempts  to  make  himself  popular.  He 
begins  by  trying  to  associate  with  those  that 
are  popular  or  that  he  thinks  likely  to  become 
so.  Perhaps  he  pays  a  high  price  for  a  room 
in  a  house  where  it  is  expected  that  the  popular 
men  will  live.  He  endeavors  to  imitate  them, 
but,  like  most  imitators,  generally  succeeds  in 
reproducing  only  their  weaknesses.  He  may 
aspire  to  athletic  or  other  responsibilities  in 
order  to  help  his  own  social  standing.  What- 
ever he  may  gain  with  this  end  in  view,  he  will 
not  secure  the  object  on  which  he  has  set  his 
heart.  Popularity,  like  happiness,  is  not  to  be 
found  by  seeking  it  directly.  The  pursuit  of 
it  is  Kke  following  the  end  of  the  rainbow. 
The  really  popular  man  is  the  one  who  com- 
mands the  admiration  of  his  classmates  for 
his  character  and  for  what  he  does  for  the 
college  and  for  those  whom  it  is  in  his  power 
to  help.  The  one  who  pursues  any  object  for 
a  selfish  end,  whether  it  be  scholarship,  social 
honors,  or  athletics,  will  not  be  highly  esteemed. 
The  way  to  become  popular  is  to  be  worthy 
of  popularity.  If  a  student  is  unselfish  in  his 
treatment  of  others,  kind  and  polite  to  all  with- 
out regard  to  their  social  standing,  has  the 
courage  to  live  up  to  his  convictions,  controls 
his  temper,  and  is  always  truthful  and  honest, 
[118] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

he  will  have  all  the  popularity  in  college  that 
the  most  ambitious  man  could  desire. 

He  who  wishes  to  be  an  agreeable  companion, 
and  to  make  friends  among  his  classmates, 
must  be  gentlemanly,  trustworthy,  kindhearted, 
discreet,  and  considerate  of  other  men's  time. 

If  a  college  student  has  not  the  feelings  and 
manners  of  a  gentleman,  the  deficiency  is  gen- 
erally ascribed  to  lack  of  proper  training  at 
home;  though  this  may  not  be  true.  By  his 
boorish  and  arrogant  ways,  a  youth  often 
brings  dishonor  on  his  parents  which  they  do 
not  deserve.  But  if  his  manners  are  bad,  he 
will  have  the  credit  among  his  classmates  of 
doing  as  well  as  he  knows  how.  True  polite- 
ness springs  from  a  generous  heart,  and  is  not 
characteristic  of  a  selfish  man,  though  such  a 
man  may  understand  and  follow  the  rules  of 
etiquette.  To  be  on  all  occasions  a  gentleman 
requires  self-control,  patience,  good- will,  and 
a  readiness  to  deny  one's  self  for  another's 
comfort.  The  true  gentleman  loves  his  neigh- 
bor as  himself.  He  will  not,  therefore,  try  to 
get  the  better  of  his  neighbor,  but  will  be  care- 
ful not  to  say  or  do  that  which  will  give  him 
pain.  He  will  not  only  show  a  deference  to 
those  above  him,  but  will  take  especial  pains 
to  treat  with  courtesy  those  who  are  less  fortu- 
[119] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

nate  than  himself,  whether  they  be  his  class- 
mates or  his  servants.  I  have  never  forgotten 
how  politely  one  of  my  classmates  went  to 
the  assistance  of  a  poor  colored  washerwoman 
who  had  slipped  on  the  icy  pavement  and 
dropped  her  laundry  basket.  Because  she  was 
only  a  colored  woman,  most  young  men  would 
have  smiled  and  passed  on.  The  man  who 
treats  with  derision  those  who  are  condemned 
by  unfavorable  circumstances  to  a  Hfe  of  toil 
has  no  right  to  a  place  among  gentlemen. 

Horace  mentions  among  the  characteristics 
of  manhood  the  ability  to  keep  to  one's  self 
secrets  that  ought  not  to  be  revealed.  This 
should  also  include  not  only  what  has  been  told 
you  in  confidence,  but  everything  that  has 
come  to  your  knowledge  which  it  would  harm 
some  one  else  to  have  disclosed.  Why  is  it  that 
people  are  so  fond  of  telling  something  new, 
especially  that  which  discredits  others  and 
tends  to  detract  from  their  reputation?  If  you 
praise  a  classmate  to  one  of  his  acquaintances, 
you  almost  expect  him  to  reply  adversely  and 
go  on  to  give  you  the  unfavorable  side  of  the 
man,  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  Greek  who  voted 
to  ostracize  Aristides  because  he  could  not 
bear  to  hear  him  always  called  "the  Just."  It 
is  far  from  easy  to  find  a  man  in  whom  you 
[120] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

can  confide  and  feel  sure  that  nothing  will  be 
disclosed.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  obligation 
to  keep  what  has  been  entrusted  to  you  in  con- 
fidence is  so  great  that  no  possible  considera- 
tion, not  even  that  of  public  utility,  can  be 
strong  enough  to  justify  you  in  being  false  to 
the  trust. 

If  you  are  inclined  either  to  make  or  to 
listen  to  unfriendly  criticism  of  other  men,  it 
will  be  well  to  remember  three  things:  that  he 
who  talks  against  a  classmate  to  you,  will  also 
talk  against  you  to  him;  also,  that  those  who 
are  most  severe  in  their  denunciation  of  others 
are  generally  the  ones  whose  own  characters 
and  lives  will  least  bear  inspection;  and  again, 
that  a  man  is  very  likely  to  criticize  others  for 
the  faults  of  which  he  himself  is  guilty.  Be 
especially  careful  not  to  speak  unkindly  of 
those  who  have  tried  to  injure  you.  College 
men  respect  and  admire  one  who  has  such  a 
fine  sense  of  honor  that  he  will  not,  by  word  or 
deed,  injure  another,  though  he  is  known  to 
be  his  enemy.  "Love  your  enemies"  is  the  best 
rule  everywhere,  not  only  for  their  sake  but 
for  your  own.  Acts  done  for  the  purpose  of 
injuring  another's  reputation  harm  chiefly  the 
one  who  does  them.  Envy  and  jealousy  belong 
to  the  meaner  side  of  human  nature,  and  are 
[121] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

among  the  sins  that  Christ  especially  con- 
demned. 

While  you  will  abstain  from  saying  things 
that  hurt  the  feelings  of  others,  you  must 
expect  now  and  then  to  have  things  said  to 
you  that  will  cause  irritation.  The  most  manly 
way  to  meet  ill-natured  remarks  of  ill-mannered 
men  is  by  silence.  To  reply  in  kind  or  to  show 
resentment  by  being  yourself  ungentlemanly  is 
never  wise.  Sometimes  a  student  who  has 
received  at  the  hands  of  the  Faculty  treatment 
which  he  considers  unjust,  gives  expression  to 
his  injured  feelings  by  refusing  to  recognize 
members  of  that  body  on  the  street,  thus  mak- 
ing a  display  of  a  side  of  his  nature  which  it 
would  be  wiser  for  him  to  conceal. 

One  should  learn  to  profit  by  the  unkind 
things  said  to  him,  and  get  something  more 
from  them  than  training  in  patience  and  self- 
control.  If  one  has  criticized  me,  though  it 
be  in  the  spirit  of  anger,  it  is  pretty  certain 
that  there  is  something  wrong  about  me  which 
ought  to  be  corrected.  One  may  perhaps  learn 
even  from  men  who  reveal  what  they  know 
when  under  the  influence  of  wine,  and  an  angry 
man  may  speak  truths,  unpleasant  though  they 
be.  When  a  man  criticizes  me  severely  in  an 
outburst  of  anger,  instead  of  trying  to  defend 
[122] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

myself  either  to  him  or  to  my  own  judgment, 
I  ought  rather  to  look  into  my  own  conduct 
and  character  to  see  whether  there  is  not  some 
just  ground  for  his  criticism. 

However  much  we  may  desire  to  help  a  class- 
mate, there  are  services  which,  for  the  most  of 
nSy  it  may  not  be  wise  to  undertake.  Expe- 
rience has  shown  that  it  is  generally  not  safe 
to  venture  to  tell  a  friend  his  faults,  though 
this,  when  it  is  done  in  the  spirit  of  kindness 
and  18  gratefully  received,  is  the  most  helpful 
service  we  can  render  him.  Now  and  then  a 
man  of  rare  tact  has  this  gift.  But  generally 
when  men  tell  us  our  faults,  they  are  moved  by 
jealousy  or  by  anger,  and  not  by  love.  We 
all  have  faults  enough  that  we  should  be  quick 
to  correct  if  we  could  only  see  them  as  they 
appear  to  others;  but  most  of  us  dislike  to  be 
told  of  them,  seeming  to  prefer  to  cherish 
them  and  let  them  grow  worse. 

8uu9  etdqu§  attributui  §tt  tror: 
§§d  non  vid^mut  mantiea  quod  in  t$rgo  tit, 

I  should  hesitate  a  long  while,  also,  before 
attempting  to  correct  a  conceited  or  arbitrary 
man  in  his  statements,  although  I  knew  for 
certain  that  they  were  wrong.  It  would  only 
irritate  him.  Instead  of  being  corrected,  he 
[128] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

would  stand  his  ground  and  vigorously  defend 
himself,  and  the  argument  between  us  might 
easily  lead  to  unpleasant  personalities. 

One  should  not  be  obstinate  in  defending  his 
opinions,  except  where  a  moral  question  is  at 
issue,  nor  should  he  assume  that  everything 
must  be  false  which  he  does  not  believe.  He 
should  avoid  ostentation  and  be  ambitious  to 
know,  but  not  to  display  his  knowledge.  He 
should  not  get  the  idea  that  the  world,  and  all 
things  in  it,  were  made  for  him  alone,  or  that 
all  wisdom  was  born  with  him.  As  children 
perhaps  we  had  this  view,  but  when  we  became 
men  we  put  away  childish  things. 

An  Oriental  student  not  long  in  America 
called  one  evening  on  a  college  family.  As  he 
was  taking  his  leave,  he  was  urged  to  call  again 
"very  soon."  Assuming  that  all  polite  things 
said  in  American  society  were  to  be  taken  liter- 
ally, and  not  wishing  to  be  remiss  in  social 
etiquette,  he  called  again  (probably  after  con- 
sulting his  dictionary)  in  half  an  hour.  We 
readily  excuse  him  for  his  misunderstanding ; 
we  should  probably  do  much  worse  in  his 
country.  But  there  is  no  excuse  for  your 
classmate  who  seems  to  have  nothing  to  do  but 
loaf  in  your  room.  One  ought  to  be  on  friendly 
terms  with  all  his  classmates,  and  visit  with 
[124] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

many  of  them  in  their  rooms  and  in  his  own; 
but  he  who  makes  his  calls  too  long  or  too 
frequent  will  soon  become  an  unwelcome  visitor. 
Though  he  may  be  received  politely,  he  will  be 
voted  a  bore.  A  business  man  may  put  up  in 
his  office,  "This  is  my  busy  day,"  and  keep  it 
there  every  day  in  the  year ;  but  a  college  man 
cannot,  without  rudeness,  show  such  lack  of 
cordiality  to  a  classmate.  However  much  it 
roay  go  against  the  grain,  when  he  comes  to 
your  room  you  have  to  treat  him  courteously. 
It  would  be  ungentlemanly  and  unkind  to  do 
otherwise.  When  serious  work  must  be  done, 
there  is  always  a  refuge  in  the  reference  library, 
where  conversation  is  forbidden. 

When  I  began  my  duties  as  a  college 
instructor,  I  thought,  as  many  young  instruc- 
tors do,  that  j^  was  my  mission  to  bring  about 
better  relations  between  the  Faculty  and  stu- 
dents, and  urged  the  Freshmen  to  call  upon 
me.  On  going  to  my  room  one  day  from  the 
morning  recitation,  I  found  a  Freshman  wait- 
ing at  the  door.  I  was  glad  to  spend  a  few 
minutes  with  him,  and  tried  to  make  him  feel 
that  he  was  welcome,  evidently  with  much 
success.  He  seemed  to  enjoy  the  visit,  and  I 
soon  began  to  wonder  how  long  it  would  last. 
The  few  minutes  extended  to  half  an  hour, 
[125  J 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

then  to  an  hour,  and  still  on  to  two  hours  and 
more.  Ten  minutes  before  the  noon  recitation 
he  rose  to  go,  and  said:  "I  see  it  is  nearly 
twelve  o'clock;  I  shall  have  to  go  now.  Per- 
haps my  call  has  seemed  long,  but  the  fact  is, 
my  room  is  more  than  a  mile  from  college  and 
I  had  no  other  place  to  stay  between  recita- 
tions." 

Man  cannot  live  without  friends.  If  he  is 
not  appreciated  by  his  fellows,  he  will  find 
friends  among  the  animals,  sometimes  more 
faithful  than  those  of  his  own  race  or  family. 
To  be  worthy  of  friendship,  we  must  show  the 
friend-like  qualities  that  we  expect  to  find  in 
others.  An  insincere  man  cannot  have  a  true 
friend,  because  he  cannot  be  a  true  friend  him- 
self; nor  the  selfish  man,  because  he  wants 
friends  simply  for  his  own  advantage.  Jeal- 
ousy destroys  friendship.  If  you  are  all  the 
time  apprehensive  lest  your  friend  slight  you, 
and  are  moody  at  his  fondness  for  others,  your 
company  will  be  unnecessary,  and  perhaps 
annoying.  If  you  have  a  friend  whom  you 
prize,  try  to  be  worthy  of  him.  Do  not  be 
discourteous,  nor  flippant,  nor  irreverent.  He 
will  value  you  less  for  such  lack  of  good  breed- 
ing. Do  not  argue  with  him  in  order  to  justify 
yourself;  you  may  justify  yourself  to  your 
[126] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

own  satisfaction,  but  lose  his  esteem.  Do  not 
be  curious  about  his  private  affairs ;  if  he  wishes 
to  tell  you,  he  will  do  so. 

If  the  best  definition  of  a  friend  is  that  given 
by  a  boy,  as  John  C.  Goddard  has  said,  that 
"a  friend  is  a  fellow  who  knows  all  about  you, 
and  yet  likes  you,"  then  college  friendships 
should  be  best  of  all,  for  nowhere  else  can  a 
fellow  know  more  about  you  than  in  college. 
For  this  reason  it  is  nowhere  more  important 
to  choose  one's  associates  cautiously.  What 
you  become  in  college  will  depend  much  upon 
your  choice  of  companions  at  the  very  begin- 
ning. You  cannot  be  closely  attached  to  a 
friend  without  feeling  his  influence  over  you. 
You  become  fond  of  him,  his  manners,  his 
method  of  doing  things,  and  soon  you  uncon- 
sciously begin  to  be  like  him.  If  he  is  a  worthy 
man,  you  grow  better  for  the  influence;  if  he 
is  a  bad  man,  you-  grow  worse.  A  company  of 
bad  men  will  be  more  openly  vile  than  any  one 
of  them  would  dare  to  be  alone,  and  even  one 
bad  friend  may  easily  work  a  young  man's 
ruin.  Others  will  judge  us  by  the  friendships 
we  make.  "He  that  walketh  with  wise  men'* 
may  not  in  all  cases  be  "wise,"  but  people  gen- 
erally will  think  him  so;  and  however  worthy 
in  other  respects  he  may  be,  no  one  will  have 
[127] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

the  full  confidence  of  the  college  at  large  if  his 
intimate  companions  are  evil. 

If  one  does  not  form  life-long  friendships, 
the  fault  will  generally  be  his  own.  Almost  any 
young  man  of  good  character  and  cleanly 
habits,  who  is  sincere  and  not  conceited  or 
selfish,  can  find  good  and  true  friends  among 
his  classmates.  If  a  man  has  not  the  capacity 
to  make  friends  (and  there  are  those  who  have 
not),  he  will  have  many  lonely  hours  and  will 
long  for  some  one  who  can  sympathize  with 
him.  Such  a  man  must  not  be  left  to  bear  his 
burden  of  sohtude  alone.  His  lack  of  social 
qualities  has  perhaps  come  through  no  fault 
of  his.  It  may  be  from  an  inherited  shyness; 
it  may  be  the  result  of  a  childhood  without 
playmates.  Here  is  a  chance  to  help  a  class- 
mate, and  perhaps  to  save  him.  Become  his 
friend,  because  he  needs  you.  Cheer  him  by 
words  of  friendly  appreciation.  Draw  out  his 
good  qualities.  The  helpfulness  of  one  class- 
mate may  do  more  to  develop  him  than  all  the 
other  influences  of  the  college. 

The  motive  of  the  true  friend  is  not  per- 
sonal advantage  or  enjoyment,  but  helpful- 
ness to  others.  A  man  with  this  supreme 
motive  considers  every  one  his  friend  and 
"neighbor"  whom  it  is  in  his  power  to  help. 
[128] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

My  heart  has  long  been  filled  with  gratitude 
to  a  friend  whom  I  saw  but  once,  whose  name 
I  never  knew,  and  who  did  not  know  mine. 
More  than  fifty  years  ago,  I  entered  one  after- 
noon a  crowded  car  in  the  Boston  station,  on 
my  way  to  Worcester.  A  young  man  a  few 
years  my  senior  kindly  shared  his  seat  with 
me.  After  the  manner  of  young  men,  we  got 
into  friendly  conversation,  chiefly  about  our- 
selves. My  companion  had  recently  grad- 
uated from  a  law  school  and  was  a  clerk  in  a 
Boston  office.  I  had  been  obliged,  not  long 
before,  to  give  up  my  studies  at  Andover  from 
lack  of  money,  and  had  no  hope  of  being  able 
to  return.  My  companion,  who  was  a  college 
man,  at  once  took  an  interest  in  me,  perhaps 
as  in  one  who  might  some  day  become  also  a 
college  man.  He  showed  a  great  deal  of  sym- 
pathy and  was  anxious  to  help  me.  By  way  of 
encouragement,  he  told  me  something  of  his 
own  history.  That  very  morning  I  had  been 
consulting  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Worcester 
about  the  validity  of  the  will  of  a  relative  in 
whose  small  estate,  if  he  had  left  no  will,  I 
should  have  had  some  slight  interest.  The 
distinguished  lawyer  had  given  me  no  en- 
couragement, but  had  assured  me  that  the 
will  was  good  and  that  none  of  the  prop- 
[129] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

erty  could  come  to  me.  I  showed  the  copy 
of  the  will  which  I  had  with  me  to  my 
newly  made  friend.  He  read  it  carefully, 
asked  me  a  few  questions,  and  told  me  that 
the  document  was  worthless,  giving  his  rea- 
sons. On  his  advice,  I  returned  that  after- 
noon to  the  office  of  the  distinguished  lawyer 
whom  I  had  interviewed  in  the  morning  and 
told  him  why  the  will  was  not  good.  He  con- 
sulted a  law  book,  and  at  once  agreed  that  the 
young  graduate  of  the  law  school  was  right; 
but,  though  he  admitted  that  he  had  told  me 
what  was  false,  and  that  I  had  told  him  the 
truth,  he  kept  the  fee  which  I  had  paid  him  in 
the  morning.  A  mere  statement  of  the  case, 
as  explained  by  the  young  law  clerk,  satisfied 
the  one  in  charge  of  the  property,  himself  a 
lawyer  long  in  practice,  and  without  further 
question  I  received  my  fourth  of  the  small 
estate.  The  sum  thus  obtained  enabled  me  to 
continue  my  preparation  and  enter  college. 
This  service,  rendered  me  by  a  large-hearted 
young  man  whom  I  met  by  the  merest  chance, 
was  apparently  the  means  of  changing  the 
course  of  my  life.  I  was  helped  not  only  by 
the  material  aid  which  came  to  me  through 
his  advice;  I  have  never  lost  the  influence  of 
his  kind  and  sympathetic  words.  As  I  have 
[130] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

not  been  able  to  repay  him,  I  have  tried  to 
extend  his  service  by  helping  other  young  men 
and  thus  passing  on  to  them  in  some  form  the 
good  that  I  received  from  my  brief  acquaint- 
ance with  him. 

While  one  should  be  friendly  toward  all,  he 
can  have  only  a  very  few  intimate  friends. 
You  will  be  fortunate  if  you  find  in  all  your 
class  even  one  or  two  in  whom  you  recognize 
true  nobility  of  character,  to  whom  you  can 
entrust  in  confidence  your  thoughts  and  plans 
and  know  that  their  hearts  are  full  of  love  and 
sympathy.  Outside  the  home,  there  are  per- 
haps no  friendships  that  can  compare  in  inti- 
macy and  affection  with  those  of  college  chums. 
The  ties  between  them  often  become  as  close 
as  those  of  brothers.  A  good  roommate  will 
be  your  companion  in  study  and  in  recreation; 
he  will  rejoice  in  your  successes,  and  encour- 
age and  help  you  when  in  difficulty.  Without 
such  a  roommate,  you  will  never  know  what 
some  of  the  most  delightful  experiences  in  col- 
lege life  are.  It  is  not  good  for  a  student  to 
room  alone;  he  may  have  more  time  to  himself 
and  less  interruption,  but  the  loss  will  far  out- 
weigh the  gain.  If  he  finds  it  hard  to  get  on 
with  a  roommate,  that  shows  that  he  needs 
one ;  it  is  part  of  his  education  to  learn  to  get 
[131] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

on  with  people.  If  he  shuns  the  society  ol  his 
classmates,  he  is  likely  to  grow  less  compan- 
ionable and  neighborly,  and  become  so  much 
shut  up  within  himself  as  to  develop  peculiar- 
ities that  will  do  him  harm.  It  is  well,  also, 
to  leam  to  study  in  the  presence  of  others. 
Much  of  one's  work  in  later  years  must  be 
done  wherever  he  can  find  a  chance  to  write  or 
think.  If,  when  in  college,  he  can  study  only 
in  seclusion  and  silence,  he  may  find  himself 
later  under  a  disability  that  it  will  take  a  long 
time  to  remove.  I  do  not  speak  without  expe- 
rience. During  three  years  out  of  four  I 
roomed  alone,  and  have  ever  since  regretted  it. 
In  my  Freshman  year,  a  Sophomore  kindly 
shared  his  room  with  me.  He  helped  me  to 
start  aright,  and  his  sunny  disposition  was  a 
blessing  to  us  both.  I  needed  the  influence  of 
such  a  roommate.  Though  we  now  Hve  more 
than  a  thousand  miles  apart,  we  are  still  the 
best  of  friends. 

As  locating  officer  for  more  than  thirty 
years,  I  esteemed  it  one  of  the  privileges  of  my 
position  that  on  many  occasions  I  was  able  to 
bring  together  at  the  beginning  of  Freshman 
year  young  men  as  roommates  who  found 
themselves  agreeable  companions,  who  kept 
together  through  the  four  college  years,  and 
[132] 


AMONG  CLASSMATES 

have  remained  life-long  friends.  Some  of  the 
pleasantest  associations  of  one's  academical 
life  are  those  which  center  in  the  college  room, 
where  joys  have  been  enhanced  and  sorrows 
lightened  because  they  have  been  shared  by  a 
congenial  roommate. 


[188] 


vn 

PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 


Quam  quisque  norit  artem  in  hoc  ae  exerceat. — Cicero. 

What  ruins  a  man  is  throwing  himself  into  a  pro- 
fession that  does  not  suit  him. — Bacon. 

No  man  without  absolute  integrity  ever  ends  his  career 
as  a  great  merchant. — Charles  Stuart  Smith. 

He  who  has  a  high  ambition  to  spend  himself  in  noble 
deeds,  without  thought  of  self,  will  have  an  ear  to  the 
church's  call. — President  George  B.  Stewart. 

Probably  no  other  profession  demands  the  complete 
absorption  of  one's  whole  life  as  does  the  medical  pro- 
fession. To  the  earnest,  aspiring  man  or  woman,  to 
whom  the  thought  of  service  is  an  inspiration,  no  other 
profession  has  more  to  oflFer. — George  F.  Shears. 

The  lawyers  of  the  future  will  not  be  mere  pleaders 
before  juries.  They  will  save  their  clients  from  need  of 
judge  and  jury. — President  Jordan. 

Congenial  labor  is  the  secret  of  happiness. 

— Arthur  Christopher  Benson. 

Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work.  Let  him  ask  no 
other  blessedness.  He  has  a  work,  a  life  purpose;  he  has 
found  it  and  will  follow  it. — Carlyle. 

Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road 
And  be  a  friend  to  man. 

— Sam  Walter  Foss, 


vn 

PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

The  year  following  my  graduation  from  col- 
lege was  spent  in  teaching  at  the  Chickering 
Institute  in  Cincinnati.  There  was  now  before 
me  a  definite  plan  of  life,  in  which  my  first 
obligation  was  the  removal  of  my  college  debts. 
When,  before  the  end  of  the  year,  I  was  able 
to  write  to  Professor  Thacher,  who  had  greatly 
befriended  me,  that  I  owed  no  man  anything, 
I  felt  a  satisfaction  to  me  before  unknown. 
The  end  long  hoped  for  had  been  gained,  and 
the  friends  who  had  kindly  assisted  me  had 
been  repaid,  as  far  as  money  could  repay  them. 
I  had  returned  to  the  work  that  I  loved  and 
had  followed  for  several  years  before  entering 
college,  and  was  free  to  continue  my  studies 
unencumbered.  My  college  debts,  which  aver- 
aged nearly  two  hundred  dollars  each  year, 
would  have  hindered  me  greatly  in  my  subse- 
quent work  if  they  had  not  been  removed  at 
once. 

I  say  to  any  student  who  has  to  pay  his  way, 
do  not  borrow  if  it  can  be  avoided.  A  college 
[187] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

debt  will  impose  a  burden  on  you  when  you  are 
in  no  condition  to  bear  it.  But  if  you  must 
graduate  in  debt,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  get 
square  with  the  past.  Even  if  you  must  post- 
pone further  study  for  a  year  or  more  to  earn 
the  money,  the  delay  will  be  a  less  evil  than  the 
incubus  of  a  debt  when  you  leave  the  profes- 
sional school.  Then  is  just  the  time  when  you 
will  need  a  great  deal  more  money  than  you 
can  earn,  and  when  you  will  have  nothing  what- 
ever with  which  to  meet  long-standing  obliga- 
tions. Moreover,  it  is  exceedingly  discourag- 
ing to  be  forced  to  economize  in  order  to  pay 
for  the  necessary  things  of  life,  like  food,  cloth- 
ing, lodgings,  which  one  had  years  ago  but  of 
which  nothing  now  remains.  If  after  repeated 
postponements  you  are  able  at  length,  by  strict 
economy,  to  make  settlement,  you  will  feel  like 
saying,  as  did  one  of  my  early  companions 
when  he  paid  his  landlady  a  board  bill  long 
since  due:  "Take  the  money  if  you  will,  but  it 
seems  to  me  just  like  throwing  it  into  the  fire!" 
He  who  enters  his  profession  with  a  debt 
which  he  is  making  no  plans  to  repay  does  not 
give  much  promise  of  an  honorable  and  useful 
life.  If  one  graduates  in  debt,  his  first  duty 
as  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian  is  to  pay  what 
he  owes.  This  duty  should  be  discharged 
[138] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

before  he  establishes  himself  in  a  home  of  his 
own,  and  before  he  gives  to  charity.  He  has 
no  right  to  use  for  luxury  or  to  give  away 
what  really  belongs  to  another.  Among  those 
who  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  our  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  there  are  not  a  few  who, 
when  in  great  need,  have  been  able  to  secure 
loans  from  private  individuals — sometimes 
from  classmates  or  members  of  the  Faculty, 
sometimes  from  friends  of  the  college — which 
they  have  never  repaid,  and  seem  to  feel  under 
no  obligation  to  repay.  Many  of  these  do  not 
even  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  courteous 
letters  of  inquiry  regarding  their  obligation. 
One  readily  forgives  the  unfortunate  debtor 
who  says  frankly  that  he  has  nothing  with 
which  to  make  payment,  but  what  can  be  said 
for  him  who  treats  with  contempt  the  friend 
who  has  helped  him  when  others  would  not? 
Other  students  in  limited  circumstances  suffer 
greatly  from  the  unsavory  reputation  of  such 
delinquents.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  find 
persons  who  would  loan  money  willingly  to 
college  students,  without  interest,  if  it  were  not 
for  an  impression  created  by  so  many  bad 
debtors,  that  students  who  are  anxious  to 
borrow  are  often  unwilling  to  pay  back. 

There  is  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  a  consider- 
[189] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

able  number  of  students  that  they  have  a  right 
to  all  the  financial  help,  in  the  way  of  loans 
and  scholarships,  that  they  can  get.  This 
attitude,  together  with  the  lack  of  appreciation 
not  infrequently  shown,  has  led  many  to  ques- 
tion the  wisdom  of  granting  pecuniary  aid  in 
any  form.  But  among  students  of  very  limited 
means  are  some  of  the  foremost  scholars,  the 
ablest  writers,  and  the  most  promising  young 
men  in  the  colleges.  Many  of  these  could  not 
continue  their  education  without  the  aid  thus 
furnished,  and  they  are  the  ones  whose  services 
the  church  and  the  state  can  least  of  all  afford 
to  lose;  but  how  to  administer  the  funds  so 
that  only  the  deserving  may  be  aided,  is  a  prob- 
lem of  much  difficulty.  The  donors  of  scholar- 
ship funds  have  generally  not  provided  for 
repayment  of  the  money  advanced  to  students, 
leaving  that  to  the  honor  of  those  who  receive 
it.  But  if  you  accept  financial  aid  in  any  form, 
though  you  are  under  no  obligation  to  treat  it 
as  a  loan,  you  should  have  the  purpose  to  return 
it  to  the  college  if  you  are  ever  able  to  do  so 
without  hardship,  that  it  may  be  passed  on  to 
others.  If  you  really  appreciate  the  assist- 
ance, you  will  hardly  be  willing  to  receive  it 
without  planning  to  do  at  least  as  much  to  help 
some  one  else  in  similar  circumstances. 
[140] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

As  you  approach  the  close  of  your  college 
course,  your  thoughts  will  turn  more  and  more 
toward  the  future  with  its  opportunities  and 
responsibilities.  Among  the  questions  that 
present  themselves,  the  most  important  con- 
cerns the  special  line  of  service  to  which  your 
life  is  to  be  devoted.  Nothing  need  be  said  to 
convince  you  that  this  should  not  be  decided 
without  very  careful  deliberation.  Your  com- 
fort, happiness,  and  usefulness  depend  on  the 
choice  you  make.  Before  selecting  a  profes- 
sion, you  should  be  sure  of  three  things:  that 
it  is  the  one  for  which  you  are  best  fitted ;  that 
you  will  not  find  its  duties  disagreeable;  that 
it  offers  the  future  which  you  desire. 

Many  of  the  failures  in  life  are  due  to  the 
attempts  of  men  to  do  work  for  which  they  are 
not  qualified  by  nature  or  by  education.  There 
are  men  in  business  who  would  have  done  better 
in  the  professions,  and  a  great  many  men  enter 
the  professions  who  would  have  done  much 
better  in  some  kind  of  business.  Some  have 
gone  into  business  for  themselves  and  lost  all, 
because  they  lack  the  capacity  to  organize  and 
direct,  and  can  work  to  advantage  only  under 
the  supervision  of  others.  As  a  general  rule, 
a  man  will  not  fail  in  any  occupation  which  he 
understands  if  he  is  of  trustworthy  character 
[141] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

and  has  plenty  of  energy  and  persistence;  but 
one  cannot  do  his  best  if  he  misses  his  calling. 

You  ought  also  to  find  out  whether  you  are 
likely  to  be  satisfied  with  a  profession,  before 
you  choose  it.  After  you  enter  it,  you  are 
expected  to  become  absorbed  in  it,  devoting 
your  best  energies  day  after  day,  and  year 
after  year,  to  mastering  its  problems.  You 
will  live  in  it.  Will  it  be  congenial?  Will  this 
daily  contact  with  it  satisfy  you?  Will  its 
methods  satisfy  you?  Will  you  be  contented 
to  remain  in  it  to  the  end,  to  make  your  repu- 
tation in  it? 

Ask  yourself  also  whether  the  occupation 
which  you  have  in  mind  will  offer  you  the  future 
that  you  desire.  Does  it  present  to  you  a 
worthy  career?  If  you  propose  to  spend  time 
in  learning  a  business,  an  important  question 
is.  Will  that  kind  of  business  continue  to  be  done 
twenty  years  hence,  or  will  it  have  to  give  place 
to  something  more  modern?  If  you  think  of 
preparing  yourself  to  teach  a  certain  branch, 
you  want  to  know  whether  that  branch  is  one 
in  which  there  is  and  will  continue  to  be  a 
demand  for  instructors. 

Nature  has  so  plainly  chosen  some  men  for 
their  work  that  they  themselves  hardly  need 
to  make  a  choice.  Professor  Newton  told  me 
[142] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

that  from  boyhood  it  was  evident  that  his  life 
was  to  be  devoted  to  the  study  and  teaching  of 
mathematics,  and  that  he  never  once  thought 
of  any  other  occupation.  GifFord  Pinchot 
came  to  college  intending  to  become  a  forester, 
and  began  in  the  first  term  of  Freshman  year 
special  study  in  preparation  for  his  future 
career.  A  young  man  is  fortunate  if  his  native 
talents,  the  plans  of  his  parents,  and  his  own 
inclination  combine  to  mark  out  his  vocation 
for  him  beyond  a  doubt.  But  with  the  great 
majority  of  us,  it  is  not  so.  Partly  by  expe- 
rience, and  partly  by  the  judgment  of  teachers 
and  others  interested  in  us,  we  have  to  dis- 
cover in  what  direction  our  natural  qualifica- 
tions seem  to  point.  With  some,  the  chief 
question  is  not.  What  am  I  best  fitted  to  do  ?  but 
What  opportunity  does  each  profession  offer 
me?  For  such  as  these,  the  decision  is  often 
based  on  the  amount  of  the  expected  income. 
It  may  prove  a  great  mistake  to  reject  the 
calling  for  which  one  finds  he  is  fitted,  on 
account  of  the  smallness  of  the  income;  the 
chief  end  of  life  is  not  to  get  a  large  salary. 
What  one  does  for  the  world  is  of  far  greater 
consequence  than  what  he  receives  from  it.  It 
has  gratified  me  much  to  know  that  among  the 
young  men  who  have  consulted  me  in  recent 
[148] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

years  about  their  work  for  life,  a  large  part 
do  not  seem  to  be  looking  at  the  pecuniary 
rewards  or  the  honors,  so  much  as  at  the  oppor- 
tunity to  influence  and  help  others. 

A  young  man  spends  several  years  in  school, 
and  several  more  in  college,  that  he  may  pre- 
pare himself  for  the  work  to  which  he  is  to 
devote  his  life.  If  by  the  end  of  his  second 
college  year  he  is  undecided  as  to  what  the 
nature  of  that  work  is  to  be,  he  ought  to  make 
a  study  of  the  different  callings  that  will  be 
open  to  him,  that  he  may  be  in  a  condition  to 
decide,  before  his  college  days  are  over,  in 
which  he  is  most  likely  to  find  a  place  that  he 
can  worthily  fill.  Many  parents  have  sug- 
gested that  there  ought  to  be  courses  of  lec- 
tures in  colleges,  from  which  this  information 
can  be  gained.  As  long  as  there  is  no  such 
opportunity,  you  will  have  to  get  the  informa- 
tion in  some  other  way,  but  you  should  not  fail 
to  get  it.  You  must  not  drift  aimlessly  into  a 
profession,  or  choose  one  because  a  relative  or 
classmate  has  done  so.  What  will  be  a  wise 
choice  for  your  friend  may  be  most  unwise  for 
you.  Have  a  plan  about  your  life,  and  choose 
a  profession  after  you  know  something  about 
it,  and  because  you  really  believe  that  you  will 
like  it  and  be  useful  in  it. 
[144] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

One  is  at  a  great  disadvantage  who  comes 
to  the  very  end  of  his  college  course  unde- 
termined as  to  what  his  future  is  to  be;  such 
indecision  will  cause  him  much  unhappiness. 
He  will  very  Hkely  spend  the  next  year,  and 
perhaps  several  years,  in  doing  little  or  noth- 
ing, or  in  work  that  will  have  no  bearing  on 
the  occupation  which  he  finally  adopts, — if, 
indeed,  he  ever  adopts  any.  The  longer  the 
choice  is  delayed,  the  harder  generally  it  is  to 
decide.  Martial,  in  one  of  his  epigrams,  repre- 
sents Laurus  as  likely  to  reach  the  age  when 
men  ought  to  retire  before  he  has  made  up  his 
mind  whether  he  will  be  a  teacher  of  rhetoric 
or  a  lawyer.  It  would  be  well,  as  has  been 
already  suggested,  if  a  college  student  could 
have  some  pretty  clear  idea  about  his  profession 
by  the  end  of  Sophomore  year.  If  he  has  spe- 
cial fitness  for  any  calling,  he  can  generally 
make  the  discovery  by  that  time.  An  early 
decision  will  help  in  selecting  courses  for  the 
last  two  years.  While  I  do  not  believe  it  wise 
for  most  students  to  take  up  purely  professional 
studies  in  college,  I  would  have  them  choose  for 
Junior  and  Senior  years  some  academical 
courses  that  would  be  in  the  line  of  the  work 
to  be  done  after  graduation. 

My  advice  to  young  men  who  are  in  great 
[145] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

doubt  about  their  profession  has  been  this. 
Select  the  kind  of  work  which  you  think  you 
are  best  quaUfied  by  nature  to  do.  Fit  your- 
self for  this  as  thoroughly  as  circumstances 
will  allow,  and  follow  the  leadings  of  Provi- 
dence. It  is  probable  that  your  life  will  be 
spent  in  the  work  which  you  have  selected,  but 
it  may  not  be.  Providence  may  call  you  else- 
where ;  if  so,  you  will  find  that  the  preparation 
which  you  have  made  has  fitted  you  for  the 
service  to  which  you  are  called.  There  seems 
to  be  a  plan  about  one's  hfe  which  he  has  had 
no  part  in  making,  and  which  he  does  not 
understand  till  his  work  is  nearly  done.  Then, 
looking  back  over  the  whole,  he  realizes  that 
he  has  been  guided  to  make  choices  that  have 
combined  to  give  his  life  a  completeness  which 
he  did  not  anticipate. 

All  useful  work  is  honorable.  At  Rome, 
certain  forms  of  business  were  not  thought 
consistent  with  the  dignity  of  a  Roman  citizen ; 
but  in  America,  no  useful  occupation  is  degrad- 
ing to  a  true  gentleman.  The  man  who  makes 
shoes,  or  builds  houses,  or  sells  merchandise,  or 
raises  corn,  if  he  puts  his  best  self  into  all  that 
he  does,  is  serving  God  and  his  fellow  men  just 
as  truly  as  the  man  who  preaches  the  gospel 
or  who  heals  the  sick,  and  he  may  be  doing  as 
[146] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

much,  perhaps  more,  to  help  make  the  world 
better.  He  is  doing  an  important  part  of  the 
world's  work.  It  is  not  what  your  business  is, 
but  what  you  put  into  it,  that  determines  your 
influence  over  men.  I  have  known  business  men 
whose  methods  were  so  honorable,  and  whose 
lives  were  so  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  they  have  influenced  my  life  as 
deeply  as  any  minister  or  teacher. 

Important  as  it  is  that  we  ultimately  reach 
the  work  for  which  we  are  best  fitted,  yet  the 
value  of  the  choice  depends  on  our  motive  in 
making  it.  The  noblest  calling  pursued  for 
unworthy  ends  is  inferior  to  the  humblest  ser- 
vice done  for  a  high  purpose.  To  live  to  amass 
wealth  for  its  own  sake  is  selfish,  but  if  the  aim 
is  to  acquire  a  fortune  that  it  may  be  used  in 
the  service  of  humanity,  the  purpose  ennobles 
the  work.  The  danger  is  that  when  you  have 
gained  your  fortune,  it  will  be  harder  for  you 
to  devote  it  to  the  service  of  humanity  than 
you  now  think.  The  more  a  man  has,  the  less 
in  proportion  is  he  disposed  to  give  for  the 
public  good. 

Besides    the    regular   professions,    there    are 

many  pursuits  open  to  college  graduates  who 

have    special    natural    qualifications.      Among 

them  may  be  named  civil,  mechanical,  electrical, 

[147  J 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

mining,  and  sanitary  engineering;  business  in 
all  its  forms;  forestry;  agriculture;  journal- 
ism; music;  art;  architecture;  and  advertising. 
For  the  most  of  these  some  training  may  be 
had  in  the  undergraduate,  and  more  in  the 
graduate  courses. 

The  young  man  who  plans  to  accomplish 
anything  worth  doing  in  any  profession  or  any 
business  ought  to  have  good  health,  good  men- 
tal equipment,  and  a  strong  moral  purpose. 

The  competition  in  every  field  of  activity 
today  is  so  keen  that  one  who  enters  will  need 
all  the  sustaining  power  which  vigorous  health 
can  supply.  All  degrees  of  dissipation  are 
hindrances,  and  excessive  dissipation  makes  a 
successful  career  impossible. 

If  you  are  not  more  than  an  average  stu- 
dent, the  kind  and  amount  of  mental  effort 
which  you  are  thus  far  showing  in  college  will 
not  enable  you  to  get  on  to  advantage  in  a 
professional  school.  When  it  comes  to  the 
actual  work  of  your  life,  success  will  depend 
greatly  on  your  ability  to  think  clearly,  and 
decide  quickly  and  wisely.  It  is  the  man  with 
a  well-trained  mind  who  brings  things  to  pass. 

No*  man  whose  integrity  is  questioned  can 
have  any  standing  in  business,  and  no  man  of 
impure  character  and  low  motives  ought  ever 
[148] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

to  enter  one  of  the  learned  professions.  The 
profession  will  not  want  him  when  his  character 
is  known,  as  it  soon  will  be.  What  right  has 
a  low-minded  and  unprincipled  man  to  be  a 
pleader  in  a  court  of  justice,  to  have  access  to 
our  homes  as  a  family  physician,  to  comfort 
those  who  mourn,  or  to  teach  the  young? 

To  the  young  man  who  wishes  to  put  in  his 
life  where  it  will  count  the  most  possible  for 
Christ  and  the  world,  the  ministry  will  appeal 
beyond  all  other  professions.  Here  his  best 
years  will  be  exclusively  given  up  to  the  great 
work  to  which  the  energies  of  all  good  men 
ought  to  be  devoted — the  regeneration  of  man- 
kind. There  is  certainly  no  calling  higher  or 
more  useful.  No  other  work,  when  it  is  fin- 
ished, will  be  looked  back  upon  with  greater 
satisfaction.  The  preaching  of  the  gospel  has 
been  the  great  human  agency  in  the  establish- 
ment of  modem  civilization,  with  its  institu- 
tions of  charity  and  reform. 

But  men  are  not  called  upon  to  enter  the 
ministry  who  have  not,  and  are  not  willing  to 
get,  the  necessary  qualifications.  The  Chris- 
tian minister  must  be  a  man  of  God  in  heart 
and  life,  and  should  be  to  such  a  degree  unsel- 
fish that  in  all  his  dealings  with  other  men  he 
will  consider  his  own  interests  last  of  all.  He 
[149] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

ought  to  be  courteous,  apt  to  teach,  tactful, 
and  discreet,  "telling  the  truth  in  love."  He 
will  need  the  sympathy  of  a  loving  heart  when 
he  is  called  to  meet  the  penitent  and  the 
bereaved,  and  much  patience  to  deal  calmly 
with  the  ill-tempered,  the  fault-finding,  and  the 
conceited.  While  his  position  as  a  clergyman 
will  place  him  on  a  level  with  the  best  men  in 
his  congregation,  he  must  be  willing  also  to 
treat  as  equals  those  among  his  people  who 
have  no  social  standing.  He  ought  to  be  well 
educated.  Men  who  could  not  pass  an  exam- 
ination for  admission  to  a  good  medical  or  law 
school,  or  for  a  high  school  teacher's  certificate, 
and  some  who  have  not  even  education  enough 
to  teach  a  district  school,  have  felt  called  upon 
to  preach,  without  waiting  to  get  the  training 
necessary  to  fit  them  for  their  work.  Most  of 
them,  "having  no  root,  withered  away."  If 
one  is  called  to  the  ministry,  he  is  not  called  to 
enter  it  without  the  mental  and  moral  equip- 
ment which  will  enable  him  to  be  a  leader. 

In  choosing  this  profession,  one  should  feel 
drawn  to  it  on  account  of  its  spiritual  charac- 
ter and  its  opportunities  to  help  other  men. 
A  man  without  the  personal  qualifications 
which  the  sacred  office  demands  may  attain  a 
reputation  as  a  preacher,  and  be  a  good  busi- 
[150] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

ness  manager,  but  he  cannot  hope  to  do  the 
work  of  the  ministry  as  the  Master  wishes  to 
have  it  done.  It  was  once  thought  that  every 
student  who  was  especially  interested  in  reli- 
gion ought  to  go  into  the  ministry;  but  good 
men  are  wanted  in  all  professions.  Some  of 
the  best  Christian  work  is  being  done  by  teach- 
ers, lawyers,  physicians,  and  business  men,  who, 
amid  the  demands  of  their  regular  calling,  find 
time  and  means  to  devote  to  services  of  charity 
and  religion.  Where  would  have  been  our 
churches,  colleges,  schools,  hospitals,  and  mis- 
sions, if  there  had  been  none  to  give  of  their 
substance  for  humanity's  sake? 

The  physician  holds  an  office  not  less  sacred 
than  the  ministry  itself.  He  is  responsible 
for  the  health  and  for  the  lives  of  those  who 
trust  themselves  to  his  care.  A  mistake  in 
judgment  or  a  lack  of  attention  may  produce 
fatal  results.  He  comes  to  the  home  in  time 
of  anxiety  and  sorrow,  and  his  opportunities 
to  help  and  bless  by  his  skill  and  presence  are 
not  surpassed  by  those  of  any  other  profession. 
There  is  nothing  selfish  in  the  practice  of  a 
good  physician.  He  answers  willingly  the  call 
of  the  poor  man  who  cannot  recompense  him, 
and  when  he  discovers  new  remedies  or  new 
methods  that  seem  to  him  better  than  the  old, 
[151] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

he  gives  the  information  freely  to  his  fellow 
practitioners.  He  does  not  live  for  himself; 
he,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  man,  is  a  ser- 
vant of  his  fellow  men,  sacrificing  his  own  time, 
his  comfort,  his  health,  and  sometimes  his  Hfe, 
in  order  to  save  them.  In  this  he  is  a  follower 
of  the  Great  Physician,  "who  went  about  doing 
good,"  "heahng  all  manner  of  disease,  and  all 
manner  of  sickness  among  the  people."  A  posi- 
tion of  such  responsibility  demands  thorough 
medical  training.  Who  can  estimate  what  evils 
the  human  race  has  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
half-educated  physicians,  and  of  ignorant 
persons  who  have  called  themselves  "doctors"! 
He  who  would  become  a  physician  should  have 
skill  and  good  judgment  which  will  not  fail 
him  in  a  crisis;  he  should  be  a  man  of  great 
discretion,  with  a  high  sense  of  honor,  who  can 
keep  to  himself  things  that  ought  not  to  be 
told;  a  man  with  a  sympathetic  nature  and  a 
cheerful  disposition,  who  will  bring  by  his 
presence  sunshine  and  hope. 

It  is  important  to  lay  in  college  a  broad 
foundation  for  medical  studies, — the  broader 
the  better,  if  you  do  not  begin  the  professional 
training  too  late.  It  is  well,  also,  to  make  your 
professional  studies  broad  and  inclusive,  even 
though  you  expect  in  practice  to  follow  a  spe- 
[1521 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

cial  line.  To  a  few  men  of  unusual  ability  and 
thorough  scientific  training  there  is  given  the 
great  privilege  of  adding  something  to  the 
world's  stock  of  knowledge.  The  world  owes 
more  than  can  be  estimated  to  the  specialists 
who,  for  no  reward  beyond  the  joy  of  accom- 
plishment and  the  appreciation  of  their  fellow 
workers,  have,  after  years  of  patient  investiga- 
tion, made  discoveries  that  have  lessened  suffer- 
ing and  lengthened  life.  To  render  a  service 
that  can  thus  bless  mankind  may  well  be  the 
highest  object  of  one's  ambition. 

Teaching  is  also  one  of  the  most  useful  of 
the  professions,  and  likewise  one  of  the  most 
poorly  paid.  If  you  are  by  nature  fitted  to 
teach,  are  willing  to  live  the  simple  life  and 
forego  the  opportunity  to  gain  honors  and 
wealth,  you  will  not  be  likely  to  find  any  posi- 
tion where  your  influence  will  count  for  more. 
But  teaching  is  the  last  calling  to  be  selected 
on  the  ground  of  failure  in  other  pursuits. 
Teachers  not  infrequently  become  dissatisfied 
with  their  calling.  The  remuneration  is  small, 
and  the  class-room  duties  become  more  and 
more  monotonous  and  irksome.  I  advise  any 
young  man  who  proposes  to  devote  his  life  to 
teaching  to  get  a  place  in  a  school  and  serve 
as  an  instructor  long  enough  to  be  sure  that 
[158] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

he  will  enjoy  the  work,  before  taking  several 
years  of  graduate  study  to  prepare  for  teach- 
ing as  a  profession. 

Assuming  mental  equipment,  the  best  teacher 
is  one  who  has  been  bom  with  the  instinct  for 
teaching  and  can  maintain  order  by  his  pres- 
ence. No  one  ought  to  teach  unless  he  is  sym- 
pathetic, patient,  and  of  unblemished  charac- 
ter. He  should  have  a  love  for  boys,  and  be 
able  to  see  something  good  even  in  the  worst. 
To  reach  his  pupils  so  as  rightly  to  influence 
their  lives  and  win  their  respect  and  affection, 
he  has  as  great  need  of  personal  religion  as  has 
the  minister  of  the  gospel.  A  teacher  should 
have  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  be 
skillful  in  imparting  information.  He  should 
be  free  from  prejudice  and  from  sarcasm.  It 
hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  he  should  be  an 
accurate  scholar,  and  have  a  love  of  the  truth 
for  the  truth's  sake.  To  secure  and  hold  a 
good  position  he  must  be  master  of  the  subject 
which  he  teaches.  An  instructorship  in  a  school 
that  prepares  for  college  demands  a  year  or 
more  of  graduate  study,  and  the  opportunity 
to  teach  in  college  is  open  only  to  one  who,  if 
he  has  not  already  a  doctor's  degree,  has  at 
least  been  thoroughly  trained  in  his  depart- 
ment of  study  in  a  graduate  school. 
[154] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

A  few  years  spent  as  an  instructor  in  a  good 
secondary  school  sometimes  form  an  excellent 
preparation  for  administrative  work  in  col- 
lege; but  success  as  a  schoolmaster  or  in  the 
ministry  is  no  longer  considered  a  recommen- 
dation for  a  college  professorship.  Whatever 
one's  ambition  may  be,  it  is  unwise  for  him  to 
begin  a  long  course  of  preparation  for  college 
or  university  teaching  unless  the  professors 
under  whom  he  has  specialized  have  discovered 
in  him  unusual  capacity  for  training  other 
men  or  special  fitness  for  investigation.  The 
position  of  master  in  a  good  school  is  as  useful 
and  honorable  as  a  college  professorship,  and 
that  of  headmaster  is  generally  more  remuner- 
ative. He  has  a  better  opportunity  to  shape 
the  lives  of  his  pupils.  The  impressions  of  the 
school  are  retained  when  those  of  the  college 
are  forgotten.  Much  of  the  best  educational 
work  in  the  next  half  century  will  have  to  be 
done  in  the  secondary  schools. 

The  law  is  a  good  profession  for  men  of 
ability  and  character,  but  many  are  drawn 
into  it  who  are  unfit  to  assume  its  responsi- 
bilities, whose  purposes  are  wholly  selfish,  and 
whose  influence  tends  to  lower  it  in  the  public 
estimation.  It  is  not  a  good  profession  for  a 
man  who  is  easily  discouraged  by  defeat,  or 
[155] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

for  one  who  is  ill-tempered  or  small-minded. 
It  offers  no  inducement  to  an  indolent  man,  or 
to  one  who  wants  long  vacations.  To  become 
a  good  lawyer,  one  needs  alertness,  a  capacity 
for  clear  and  concise  statement,  common  sense, 
good  judgment,  and  a  sincere  desire  to  get  at 
the  truth.  Honorable  success  in  the  law  is 
gained  only  by  incessant  application,  early  and 
late,  through  a  long  period  of  years. 

In  the  large  cities,  and  to  a  less  degree  in 
the  smaller  cities  and  towns,  the  business  of 
the  lawyer  is  quite  different  now  from  what  it 
was  when  the  fathers  of  this  generation  of  col- 
lege men  entered  the  profession.  No  large 
proportion  of  those  who  graduate  in  law  at  the 
present  day  will  practice  in  the  courts.  The 
great  industrial  corporations,  which  are  ab- 
sorbing the  business  of  the  country,  employ  as 
assistants  numbers  of  men  who  have  been 
trained  in  the  law  schools.  Their  aim  is  to 
avoid  law  suits  whenever  possible.  In  modern 
business,  men  with  large  capital  or  small  want 
sound  legal  advice,  but  they  shun  the  courts 
on  account  of  the  cost  and  vexation  incident 
to  litigation.  Title  companies  and  trust  com- 
panies now  do  much  business  that  was  formerly 
done  by  lawyers. 

Many  graduates  in  law  seek  positions  in  law 
[156] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

offices,  large  or  small,  expecting  that  the  prac- 
tical experience  will  do  for  them  what  hospital 
practice  does  for  the  young  doctor.  Some  of 
these  may  become  members  of  small  firms; 
some,  who  have  the  necessary  qualifications, 
may  become  specialists.  A  few  of  the  ablest 
and  best-trained  will  reach  the  high  levels. 
But  with  the  large  numbers  already  in  the  pro- 
fession, many  who  now  enter  it  will  have  to  be 
satisfied  with  limited  practice,  or  with  service 
under  other  men,  or  with  some  line  of  business 
for  which  their  law  studies  have  only  in  part 
prepared  them.  The  young  lawyer  finds  it 
hard  to  start  out  for  himself  in  a  great  city. 
Only  those  who  have  a  good  degree  of  per- 
sonal magnetism,  and  who  know  how  to  make 
friends  easily  and  to  gain  the  confidence  of 
other  men,  can  become  well  enough  known  to 
get  clients.  Those  without  these  gifts,  though 
not  lacking  in  intellectual  ability  or  education, 
are  very  likely  to  remain  in  the  service  of  law 
firms  as  salaried  clerks  all  their  lives. 

If  you  take  up  the  practice  of  law,  set  your 
standard  high  and  do  not  depart  from  it. 
Enter  the  profession  with  the  purpose  to 
become  distinguished  in  it.  It  is  a  worthy 
ambition  to  become  a  great  lawyer,  but  you 
will  never  attain  this  eminence  if  your  practice 
[157] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

is  doubtful  or  if  you  choose  law  in  order  to 
become  a  politician.  Promotion  in  the  hne  of 
your  profession  you  will  of  course  desire;  but 
honors  outside,  if  they  come  at  all,  should  come 
unsought.  If  they  come  in  this  way,  it  will  be 
on  account  of  your  character  as  a  man  and 
your  professional  standing.  You  will  never  be 
worthy  of  such  a  call  if  you  are  governed  by 
low  motives  or  prefer  the  honors  and  emolu- 
ments of  office  to  high  rank  in  your  profession. 

A  young  man  who  is  fond  of  mathematical 
studies,  is  accurate  and  systematic,  and  has  a 
good  degree  of  mechanical  ability,  will  be  likely 
to  succeed  as  an  engineer.  He  will  need  sound 
health,  based  on  a  strong  constitution  and  cor- 
rect living.  He  should  also  be  urged  on  by 
an  ambition  that  will  make  him  eager  for  hard 
work. 

The  student  who  has  specialized  in  some 
branch  of  engineering,  if  he  is  a  man  of  good 
habits  and  has  done  his  college  work  well,  may 
reasonably  hope  to  find  some  place  open  to 
him  on  his  graduation.  Though  his  advance- 
ment for  a  time  may  be  slow,  it  will  not  be 
uncertain,  if  he  is  found  efficient  in  his  calling 
and  sticks  to  it.  But  it  will  amply  repay  one 
of  marked  ability  to  go  on  with  graduate 
studies  in  his  specialty,  at  least  far  enough  to 
[158] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

get  the  higher  degree  to  which  they  lead.  A 
thoroughly  trained  engineer  will  not  have  to 
wait  for  a  call.  The  work  of  the  engineer  is  so 
important  to  business  interests  and  to  the 
safety  and  comfort  of  man,  that  it  cannot  be 
entrusted  to  the  untrained  and  incompetent. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  engineers  sent  out 
by  the  universities  enter  the  service  of  the  rail- 
roads, where  young  men  are  appreciated  and 
advanced  according  to  their  merit.  Many  of 
the  railroad  officials  were  first  employed  by  the 
roads  as  civil  or  mechanical  engineers.  Rail- 
roading must  be  learned  by  practical  expe- 
rience, and  the  offices  are  filled  almost  wholly 
by  men  who  have  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
business  in  subordinate  positions  on  the  road. 
What  railroad  employee  has  a  better  chance 
of  rapid  promotion  than  the  well-educated  man 
with  special  mechanical  or  disciplinary  talent 
who  begins  as  an  engineer.?  The  field  open  in 
electrical  engineering  is  particularly  inviting, 
and  is  constantly  and  rapidly  widening.  Tech- 
nically trained  men  are  wanted  by  the  electric 
railways — in  particular  for  the  electrification 
of  steam  railways — by  lighting  and  manufac- 
turing corporations,  by  the  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone companies, — wherever,  in  fact,  the  elec- 
tric current  is  generated  by  any  kind  of  motive 
[159] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

power  and  transmitted  over  long  distances  to 
factories  and  cities  for  municipal,  commercial, 
and  domestic  uses.  The  demand  for  thoroughly 
educated  electrical  engineers  is  so  great  that 
the  best  schools  are  able  to  place  all  capable 
graduates  in  desirable  positions  when  their 
technical  training  and  apprenticeship  are 
completed. 

Something  over  one-third  of  the  college 
graduates  of  the  present  day  go  into  business. 
To  most,  the  ambition  to  accumulate  a  fortune 
and  to  become  industrial  leaders,  appeals 
strongly.  Many  desire  the  active  life  and  the 
satisfaction  that  will  come  from  seeing  the 
visible  results  of  their  labors.  Some  hope  to 
produce  that  which  will  add  to  human  comfort. 
A  large  majority  of  college  graduates  are  sons 
of  fathers  who  did  not  go  to  college,  and  many 
of  these  choose  business  because  their  fathers 
were  business  men.  The  college  graduate  who 
goes  into  business  must  be  willing  to  begin  at 
the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder,  and  not  feel 
that  his  education  exempts  him  from  learning 
anything  that  the  uneducated  beginner  has  to 
learn.  If  he  enters  it  with  this  spirit,  he  will 
find  his  college  education  of  real  advantage. 
In  these  days  of  great  combinations,  strong 
men  with  trained  minds  are  in  demand;  but, 
[160] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

whatever  mental  equipment  one  may  have,  he 
must  not  expect  to  rise  to  a  very  responsible 
position  without  much  practical  experience. 

Unless  the  young  man  who  is  looking  toward 
a  business  career  has  very  evident  personal 
qualifications  or  the  strong  influence  of  family 
or  friends,  he  may  not  have  much  opportunity 
for  choice  of  place  in  which  to  begin.  There 
are  always  openings  for  the  few  best  men,  and 
almost  any  firm  would  make  a  place  for  a  young 
man  of  exceptionally  high  qualifications;  but 
to  the  majority  of  us,  average  men,  no  such 
opportunities  come.  The  most  we  can  hope 
for  is  a  fair  chance  to  start.  We  must  earn 
promotion  before  we  get  it.  Take  the  best 
place  which  is  offered  you,  and  show  by  the 
excellence  of  your  work  what  kind  of  man  you 
are.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  do  more  than  your 
share  of  the  work.  Do  not  object  to  anything 
asked  of  you  on  the  ground  that  you  are  not 
paid  to  do  that.  What  you  want  is  to  make 
yourself  as  useful  as  possible.  When  you  are 
fitted  for  it,  you  will  find  advancement,  either 
where  you  are  or  elsewhere.  If  you  are  ambi- 
tious for  a  first-class  opportunity,  do  not  let 
the  amount  of  the  salary  influence  your  decis- 
ion. The  best  compensation  during  the  first 
year  is  found  in  the  opportunity  to  learn  the 
[161] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

business.  As  a  rule,  places  that  pay  most  at 
the  start  offer  the  least  chance  of  advancement, 
and  will  be  the  least  desirable  from  the  stand- 
point of  income  twenty  years  hence. 

He  who  desires  to  become  rich  will  not  be 
likely  to  have  his  wish  gratified  in  any  of 
the  learned  professions.  There  are,  indeed, 
examples  of  physicians,  surgeons,  and  lawyers, 
who  from  their  professional  services  receive  a 
large  income  (that  is,  large  for  a  doctor  or  a 
lawyer)  ;  the  great  majority,  however,  get  no 
more  than  a  comfortable  living,  and  a  large 
proportion  hardly  that.  But  there  is  a  higher 
kind  of  satisfaction  in  being  able  to  appreciate 
things  that  are  above  material  good,  and  his 
life  will  be  one  of  great  joy  who  by  and  by 
finds  himself  well  established  in  his  calling, 
adapted  to  its  duties,  and  steadily  winning  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  other  men. 

Failure  to  do  your  part  in  the  world's  work 
may  come,  not  only  from  attempting  to  take 
a  position  beyond  the  reach  of  your  ability, 
but  also  from  shrinking,  through  lack  of  self- 
confidence,  from  a  position  which  you  can  and 
ought  to  accept.  It  requires  a  great  deal  of 
courage  and  faith  to  step  into  a  place  of  much 
responsibility,  but  when  such  an  opportunity 
comes,  you  ought  to  have  the  accumulated 
[162] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

strength  and  wisdom  of  well-spent  years  which 
will  enable  you  to  meet  the  emergency.  If  you 
are  in  your  proper  field,  and  doing  your  work 
to  the  best  of  your  ability,  you  need  not  hesi- 
tate long  when  such  an  opportunity  is  pre- 
sented. If  it  be  rejected,  it  may  not  come  to 
you  again,  and  the  call  shows  that  in  the  judg- 
ment of  others  you  can  fill  the  place  if  you  will. 
It  is  a  very  trite  suggestion  to  young  men 
that  they  are  soon  to  take  the  places  of  those 
who  are  now  doing  the  nation's  work;  but  it  is 
one  which  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  certainly 
not  by  college  men,  who  are  lifelong  debtors  to 
institutions  of  learning,  either  maintained  at 
public  expense  or  endowed  by  gifts  of  former 
generations.  They  have  been  selected  and  are 
being  trained  for  this  very  purpose,  that  they 
may  take  the  places  of  the  strong  men  of  today. 
Unless  they  prove  incompetent,  they  are  to  be 
the  leaders  of  the  next  generation.  They  will 
be  to  a  great  extent  responsible  for  the  quality 
of  men  in  the  professions,  for  the  methods  of 
business,  for  the  standard  of  morality  in  public 
and  private  life,  and  for  the  position  which  we, 
as  a  Christian  nation,  hold  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  To  take  up  and  carry  forward 
the  work  being  done  by  the  men  of  this  genera- 
tion will  be  no  light  task,  but  the  opportunity 
[163] 


FROM  SCHOOL  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

appeals  to  all  earnest  young  men.  Perhaps  no 
one  ever  does  all  that  he  hopes  to  do.  Life  is 
short,  and  strength  may  fail ;  but  when  a  young 
man  of  ability,  who  is  willing  to  do  hard  work, 
sets  out  with  his  whole  heart  to  attain  a  definite 
end,  he  is  reasonably  sure  to  accomplish  enough 
to  make  the  effort  worth  the  while. 

A  college  graduate  cannot  live  unknown. 
The  college,  the  class,  the  town  in  which  he  was 
born,  the  community  in  which  he  lives,  will 
follow  his  career  with  friendly  interest.  Sooner 
or  later,  in  the  class  history  and  obituary 
notices,  if  nowhere  else,  the  important  facts  of 
his  life  will  be  written  out,  to  stand  as  his 
record  for  future  generations.  This  public 
recognition  is  a  call  to  a  life  of  activity  and 
achievement. 

Be  loyal  to  your  college.  Remember  that 
when  you  graduate  you  go  out  as  its  represent- 
ative. You  cannot  avoid  this  responsibility. 
In  enrolling  your  name  on  its  list  of  alumni,  it 
accepts  you  as  one  of  its  sons,  and  men  will 
judge  of  it  by  what  they  know  and  think  of 
you.  It  is  true  that  men  generally  will  be  more 
apt  to  notice  the  evil  than  the  good.  If  your 
life  is  a  bad  one,  they  will  point  to  you  as  the 
kind  of  man  that  your  institution  turns  out. 
You  have  it  now  in  your  power  to  repay  the 
[164] 


PLANNING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

college  to  some  extent  for  what  it  has  done  for 
you.  For  this  end  it  is  not  necessary  to  do 
some  great  thing  that  the  world  applauds.  If 
you  are  a  good  man  and  a  good  citizen,  capable 
and  honorable  in  your  calling,  and  upright  in 
your  life,  with  an  intelligent  and  self-sacrificing 
interest  in  the  public  welfare,  ready  to  do  your 
part  toward  making  the  government  of  your 
city  and  state  clean  and  worthy  of  respect,  you 
will  honor  your  college  and  will  render  to  your 
fellow  men  the  service  for  which  you  came  to 
college  to  prepare. 


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